Plausible Deniability
by Freddo
Summary: In an alternate Battle of the Planets universe, both Zoltar and the G-Force discover they are parts in a puzzle called the Great Game. This is a crossover with my alternate Star Blazers "Visions" AU. Rating has changed to "M" for content & strangeness.
1. Chapter 1

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by "Yuki Wildstar" and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

_The origin of this fic: My recent partner-in-fanfic-crime, beta reader, and Visions Project fellow author "Yuki" and I were going along in a chat session and the incredibly wacky idea of putting the worlds of Nishizaki/ Matsumoto and Yoshida together again in a fic occurred to both of us. I have done this before, with Star Blazers & Speed Racer (Attack and Counterattack, and my current ongoing Unexpected Allies). With my Speed Racer site delayed for now, the idea of doing another fic appealed to me in a crazy fashion._

_So, we have this tale. _

_Please don't kill me…it's a very alternate universe._

_This, again, will be not only in an alternate Battle of the Planets universe, but it will be in the same huge alternate universe in which I set my Speed Racer and Star Blazers fics. Yes, these things all tie together. Sort of. While Battle of the Planets, in strict canon, seems to be set sometime (to me) around the 1990's to about 2010 or 2070, I came to the oddball creative decision that its society, what with all of the different planets we see in there, the Phoenix being able to go hyperspace, the Rigan planes having such powers, and the robots in BoTP having such intelligence (although I sometimes wonder whether 7-Zark-7 has intelligence or not, just kidding) would fit just as well into the 23rd century..._

_Thus, this is obviously very much of an alternate universe. As in my Star Blazers fics, I mix elements of Yamato and its translated series of Star Blazers, in here, you will also see elements of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Battle of the Planets mixed together, partly in the weird historical background I am coming up with for this tale…(Prin, Mark & Jason are my favorite BoTP charas). _

_So, prepare for a long, strange trip. Buckle in. I finally will be writing some characterizations for the G-Force team that have been in my head for maybe 20 years or so. You will either have fun, think I am very, very weird, or both._

_Oh, copyrights. Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman is © 2008 by Sandy Frank Productions/Tatsunoko Studios. Star Blazers/Yamato is © 2008 by Voyager International. No copyright infringement intended nor is any profit to be made from this story. I am crazy. This is just for fun._

_And thanks to Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones for some great songs from which I quote briefly in this chapter. (I.E, "Piano Man", "Talking World War III Blues" and "Harlem Shuffle")_

* * *

**PROLOGUE:**

**A HUMILIATION ON SPECTRA**

**NOVEMBER 2209**

* * *

Planet Spectra was no one's idea of the garden spot of the universe.

Spectra was a polluted dump of a planet located in the Crab Nebula in an area of space that had just avoided active invasion by either Gamilon or the Comet Empire in the great galactic wars of a few years ago that had raced around it.

The Spectrans' role in the conflicts created by Gamilon and the terrible Cometine Empire had been to act as jackal-like scavengers on the conflicts, selling arms to both sides, being a haven for both Cometine agents and rebel agents, and as a base for slavers under the disgusting military dictatorship run by the House of Ibn Zoltan.

The government of Spectra was one of the stranger governmental structures known in the Universe. As a Gamilon battlecruiser, escorted by forty destroyers, penetrated Spectran territorial space, the new Imperial Envoy, Baron Schava, thought, _From what I have heard about this place, it's as much of a dump as the R'Khell territorial worlds. Religious fanatics. They worship the House of Ibn Zoltan and the will of an intelligent computer known as The Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is supposedly some kind of god? Yes, right. Primitives? As our Leader tells us, "I am the one and only god that matters to our Empire." _

Finally, as his battlecruiser, surrounded by its destroyers, came in for a landing at the Spectran Capital of Karakora, Baron Schava felt very uneasy, even with his fleet showing the might and power of his Empire. His ship came down on a landing platform near the edge of the smoggy, dirty-looking city while the Gamilon drums-and-trumpet anthem _The Gathering of the Fleets_ played in the background as ordered.

The brown-armored members of the Gamilon militry legation there that guarded the consulate raised their arms in salute, chanting, "Schava, Schava, _Schava_, Schava, Schava. _Schava_" in the Triple Salute usually reserved for Leader Desslok and other great heroes of the Empire.

At the platform, there stood a small party waiting for Schava. One of them was a tall, strange-looking Spectran with Caucasian-looking skin in a bizarre orange and red costume (Schava would not have called his getup a "uniform" since, to him, it was _not_ a proper uniform), surrounded by a few Troopers, who were strange-looking men all clad in green and brown uniforms with long brown hair coming out of their weird-looking helmets.

"I am Schava," said the Baron as he saluted in his green and black uniform and presented his riding crop. "You are?"

"Malnax. First Envoy and Aide to the house of Ibn Zoltan. I am afraid we have had a little military coup since we were told you were coming from Gamilon to negotiate the promotion of your Legation to an Embassy and open proper diplomatic relations with Spectra. We have a new Lord High Secretary."

"Oh?" sneered Schava in the strangely-accented, arrogant-sounding clipped military tones used by so much of the Gamilon high military clique. "Who is the new ruler?"

"A young man named Malax Ibn Zoltar, a son of the Great Spirit himself."

"Hmmh?" said Schava.

"They say that he has a mother but no father. They say that he is more intelligent than any Spectran who has ever been born to date," said Schava. "He is a very forceful man and he is a Prophet of the Luminous One. He took control of the Spectran Secretariat in a round of assassinations and actions of sabotage. You would do well to watch your words around him. We go to meet him and the Luminous One now."

"Like I am impressed," said Schava.

* * *

A while later, Schava found himself in a control room flanked by a few Spectran troopers, watching as an oddball figure in a purple and red uniform and cloak genuflected before a round screen. "What is your bidding, Master?" he said in a strange, somewhat high voice.

"You will let me speak personally to Schava, Zoltar. This is my business. You cannot interefere."

"What is this?" hissed Zoltar. "I am your viceroy, your chosen, and…?"

"Silence!" said the Great Spirit. "Remain on your knees! Schava, stand forth!"

"If you think I am impressed by these so-called theatrics…" began Schava.

A weird whining noise filled the room as the screen in which the odd lifeform which was the Great Spirit began to gleam insanely bright. All of the indicators went bright white, and Schava fell to _his_ knees, screaming, as a strange sonic vibration poured into his brain. For a moment, the Gamilon felt as if he was going to have a stroke.

Then, Zoltar smiled and nodded as the lightshow ended and the Great Spirit said, "RISE!"

Schava stood up with a strangely blank, slack look on his face. "Your bidding is?"

"Now _that _is a bit more to my liking," said the Great Spirit. "This is what you will report back home to your people; that we are technologically advanced, but we have nothing your Empire would want, and we are in some need of foreign aid and materiel. You will make sure an alliance is signed that is to our liking. And, you will tell your Leader Desslok nothing of our conversation today."

"Nothing," said Schava.

Zoltar snapped his fingers in front of Schava's face. "Excellent, O Luminous One! He came here thinking we would be crushed under his boots and become his lackeys. Turnabout is fair play, now, isn't it?"

"Beware of the Lady Astrena," said the Great Spirit. "Nothing must happen here that would make her begin snooping about with her mind-energy. If she does so, our little plan will be revealed."

"And if you do that, I'll make sure I break you neck like an old tree limb," said Zoltar. At that, he began to laugh insanely.

* * *

**I.** **IN THE PLANET'S SECRET SERVICE**

**PLANET EARTH**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**ONE MONTH LATER**

* * *

Riker Kane, the new Minister of Science of the Earth Federation, and advisor to a nascent inter-species team known as the Intergalactic Science Organization, sat looking at the young man who sat ramrod-stiff before his desk. "An _unconventional_ force?"

The young man nodded his head.

"Well, the thing is, Earth Defense has one already. Two if you count the _Arizona_; that's the second unit. The old Grey Lady herself is back here in the Megalopolis under the final stages of refit…"

"Have you ever had a look at a tool kit, Kane?" said the young man in his suit. "In a repair shack, you have sledgehammers. Blunt force. The Earth Defense Fleet. We're building a second-to-none space navy now. And you might have a circular saw. A major pool tower. Big, strong, obvious. Ready to rip at boards."

The young man picked up a model of the famous space battleship _Argo_ from off Kane's desk. "The First Star Force. Gunboat diplomacy at its prime. Major force. They go in, they really investigate, take names and numbers, deal with the threat like a sharp, nasty tool. But, the most famous space battleship in two galaxies is a little bit hard to hide. A 64,000 ton space battleship can't really go in totally incognito. Oh, they can send in away teams. But if anyone sees their weapons or that arrow on their uniforms, they know that major trouble may not be far behind. And the roar of one big wave motion gun is not exactly a whisper," said the mustachioed young man through his glasses. "More like a baseball bat to the back of the head, when maybe a quick stab in the back with a _shuriken_ is what we need," said the young man as he pulled something out of his suit jacket's inner pocket and began to play with it. It looked like a big feather. "Found this in an underground city some time ago. Old Unification Wars souveneir, maybe from about…oh…2053 or 2070? Long time ago. The historical records are so blurred, though. But if I can dig hard enough, I think I will find a precedent," said Dr. James Byron Anderson.

"Why?"

"I think Earth had to deal with other garbage before Gamilon even started attacking space-borne shipping long ago. The Unification Wars obscured many things from us. Many things were lost to History as we know it. World War III and Space Wars I, II and III tended to do that to us. I also found hints Gamilon was not the first alien race we had First Contact with. We met other aliens before-who fought in the shadows…"

"So what are you thinking of?" said Kane.

"Something," said the serious young thirty-year old man as he turned his face towards Kane's chubby face, set off with prematurely grey hair. "Something a little different. In there fast, like a shadow…out like a dream. Like…ninja. Special saboteurs. Plausible deniability. They won't be Earth Defense. Trained by them, maybe, but not on the military payroll. War orphans, trained from childhood. Anti-terrorists. Sneaks."

"You had your Ph.D in astrophysics at twenty-eight from Harvard, second Ph.D in applied engineering at thirty from MIT, and you're working on an M.D. right now at Central Medical School, ostensibly as a Lieutenant Commander with International Science Organization paramilitary survey. You've got quite a mix there in Med School, Anderson. WHO people, ROTC officers, grizzled old officers, and young officers."

"Including the lady I hear you are in competition with to be valedictorian?" said Kane.

"She's beside the point, even though she can be useful to our plans. In Med School, we're doing first stage patient care rotations now. We're in and out at Central Hospital and St. Luke's. I can find our war orphans there under the guise of doing standard physicals."

"Be careful," said Kane. "I think I can get you enough funding for stage one. However, if the Defense Council gets suspicious, your funding gets pulled. Be very good. And very careful."

"I'm intend to be both," said Anderson with a grin. "Where are you going to set up shop?"

"Around the Uto Peninsula around the West Coast of North America. With the crazy water levels, that old artificial planned city is starting to surface again. And my agents are finding all sorts of things…"

"Like?" said Kane.

"Where do you think I found this?" said Anderson as he hid away his feather. "I think about 160 years ago some interesting stuff was going on. The thing is?"

"Yes?"

"I have a gut feeling maybe it is not all over yet…"

* * *

Later that day, Anderson reported for one of his Medical School classes.

Under the tutelage of a Doctor Rengo Nakajima, his class group of five men and four women were examining a young boy who had recently been found badly hurt in Sicily. He had been traumatized, and was barely communicative.

"Now, we've been trying for days to get the boy to open up," said Doctor Nakajima in a whisper as the group huddled some distance away from his bed. "He barely seems to speak Standard English, and he…"

"All right, sir," said one of the medical students in the group, a tallish young red-headed woman named Serena Skollar. She had been married until recently, and had suffered a rather nasty divorce. "Do we have an interpreter here?"

"We won't need one," said Nakajima imperiously. "Most everyone can speak Standard."

"Maybe not," said Anderson. "In a lot of ways, Earth is a very polyglot culture. So, I think we could use someone here who speaks the subject's native language."

"What would that be?" asked another medical student, a young man named Thomas Spiros.

"Didn't you do your homework?" said a young honey-blond student. "I have three kids and I find time to do my homework."

"So what in blazes is the answer?" said Spiros.

Nova Wildstar threw her blond bangs out of her eyes and said, "He speaks Italian. My Italian is getting better. Doctor Nakajima, I think Anderson and I should speak with him. Jim, I believe you know some Italian?"

"Some?" he huffed. "I'm fluent."

"Well, let's go and talk with him, then," Nova said.

Doctor Nakajima looked at the boy and said, "Tell them your name."

"Doctors," muttered the dark-haired boy.

Nova stepped forward and asked, in Italian, "_Che cosa è il vostro nome, prego_?" (What is your name, please?)

The boy bitterly responded, "_Il mio nome è Jason Giorgio Asakura… __shithead_!" (My name is Jason Giorgio Asakura…shithead!)

Nova responded very mildly, "_Ora, quello non è un senso molto piacevole comunicare con signora._" (Now, that is not a very nice way to talk to a lady.)

The bitter 10-year old boy named Jason responded with, "_Voi didn' la t appena vede i vostri genitori uccisi davanti voi alcuni giorni fa dagli assassini dello Spectran… voi __blonde brainless_!" (You didn't just see your parents killed in front of you a few days ago by Spectran assassins, you brainless blonde!)

Nova shook her head and said, "_Brainless? Voi un ragazzino molto maleducato!_" (Brainless? You are a very rude little boy!)

Anderson looked at both Nova and Jason and snapped, "_Attesa! __You' re missing qualcosa molto importante mentre occupandosi di questo piccolo one' bocca di offensiva di s! Ha accennato qualcosa conosciuto come "Spectra". Qualcosa che non sentiamo parlare mai prima; we' la VE nessun'idea di che cosa sta parlando._" (Wait! You're missing something very important while dealing with this little one's offensive mouth! He mentioned something known as "Spectra". Something we have never heard of before; we've no idea what he is talking about.)

"You have a point," Nova said. "Jason," she said in English while grapsing his chin as he tried to turn away. "What is Spectra?"

Jason stared at Nova and Anderson and hissed, "_Si denominano " Spectra". Sono gli stranieri. Donne del diavolo. Stelle del diavolo. Sono il diavolo._" (They call themselves "Spectra". They are aliens. Devil women. Devil stars. They are the Devil.)

"What do they look like?" said Anderson.

"_Diavolo_…the damned devil.." hissed Jason.

"Do you want to fight them?" said Anderson. Nova nodded. She understood well people who had chips on their shoulders. _Sounds like Derek and I ten years ago,_ she thought. _The way he felt about the Gamilons…_

"Yes, I'll fight them," said Jason. "And stop lookin' at me like tha…you two. I can speak Goddamned English."

Anderson nodded and he abruptly slapped Jason across the face. "The first lesson you will pick up as a member of my team is this! You do not use foul language in front of a woman!"

"Your _team_?" Nova said.

"Long story. I work for people, too. Let's just say this boy is my possible first recruit."

"For what?" Nova said as she turned on her white-booted foot and motioned Anderson aside to a consulting room after getting the professor's permission to leave the boy's bedside.

"The C-225 cerebonics project," said Anderson as they entered the room.

"You…are considering using a child as some kind of guinea pig?" Nova hissed.

"Yes. As a counter-terrorist measure."

"_The War on Terrorism_," Nova sighed. "Everyone's justification for inhumanity. My God, people have not stopped using that line since 2001! A regular space war, that's one thing. But, an irregular war on some enemy who is so shadowy that…"

"That's the next kind of enemy we might be fighting," said Anderson. "And like it or not, we need some recruits."

"Earth Defense can pick him up, then," Nova said. "I can arrange it, I…"

"He's not going into the military. He will be an agent of the Intergalactic Science Organization, Galactic Security Unit."

"A secret organization acting in the shadows? Please. We have enough secrecy going on these days. Sometimes, I think it was a shame to begin building a Federation of Planets out of the Alliance in the shadows."

"We're not talking about this any more, Commander Wildstar," said Anderson. "Consider this whole conversation classified. ISO has taken him for the FOP, as far as we are concerned."

Nova Wildstar nodded. She went out to speak with the others and finish the exam.

Later, she protested to Doctor Nakajima, not knowing she would not see Jason Asakura again for the next ten years, and she would not hear much of "Spectra" again for the next nine years.

However, nothing else was ever mentioned to Nova Wildstar again about the C-225 project. She thought it was a dead issue.

She was not aware that she had helped set the ball rolling, so to speak.

All with one scientific paper written while she had been in Med School…

* * *

**II. TALENT NIGHT**

**Earth: About Eleven Years Later**

**NORTH AMERICA: THE PACIFIC COAST**

**UTO** **CITY: UTO PENINSULA**

**JILL'S PLACE**

**September 6, 2221**

* * *

"So what's going on here tonight?" asked a boy with rather messy hair and buck teeth who looked to be about eleven years old. He had on an odd but cute outfit; he wore a T-shirt with the number "4" on it, striped pants, and loafers. He was a young, genius ISO Security officer known as Ensign Apprentice Keyop Jupiter.

"Battle of the bands, Keyop," said the girl of about sixteen who was often seen as Keyop's shadow. She also wore an outfit similar to Keyop's, with a number "3" on her t-shirt. "Jill might want us to help play tonight, too."

"Okay, Princess," he said as he wiped his mouth, glad that his annoying stutter had almost faded with age. "Hitting the drums in the ready room is one thing; hitting the skins in front of paying guests…not a Big Ten in my current mood."

"You're sounding like Jason," said the dark-haired beauty as she came out after playfully slapping Keyop in the head with a bar towel.

"Hey, stop that! That's child abuse!" yelled Keyop.

"I found you as a baby, when I was four in one of Spectra's first attacks….so, I'm virtually your sister! Be quiet, would you?" said Princess. Princess' real name and title was Lt. Traci Yussupov. She was Russian-Japanese and had tenous links to what remained of one of the old Russian noble houses, and had a major liking for the novel _The Princess Bride_ when she had been younger. That was how she had picked up the nickname by which she was known by most of those around her.

Princess' wristband communicator went off a moment later. She could tell from the flashing white color that it was Mark. "Be back in a minute," she said.

"Okey-do-dokey," said Keyop, who almost slapped himself when some of his stutter came back.

In the back room, Princess turned on her unit and said, "Commander, you are _late_, sir."

"I'll be there in a few," said Commander Mark Kenjiro Anderson of the ISO, their 18-year old commanding officer. ISO Security was a smallish paramilitary organization, but there was talk that it might someday become the combined military service of the now eighteen planetary members of the Federation. Of course, governmental forces on many planets did not think much of having their militaries combined into one massive force; for that matter, many members of the Federation had still not given up their traditional imperialistic Spheres of Influence yet.

"What's the hold-up?"

"Traffic," growled a now somewhat more fully-grown Lt. Cmdr Jason Asakura's voice over the communicator's speaker. He was now twenty-two, and he was the oldest of the team.

Princess laughed at that. "You mean to tell me that the Eagle and the Condor of G-Force are stuck in a _traffic jam_?"

"Yeah," said Mark.

"Spectra Mecha?" said Princess.

"Nah, this jerk in a truck hauling chickens!" said Jason. "The driver is loose in the street arguing with this Latvian cab driver while chickens are running around loose."

"Birds of a feather, all right," giggled Princess.

"Would you mind running out here to help us catch the chickens, Swan?" demanded Mark. "I don't think this is a good place or time to transmute."

"I'll keep the drum kit warm for us and just tell Jill to move up the next few acts," said Princess. A rather fat fellow came into the back room a moment later while stuffing his face with a hamburger. "Not as good as spaceburgers, Princess, but these'll do."

"You and your food, Tiny," laughed Princess as she looked at Lieutenant Desmond "Tiny" Harper. He was called "Tiny" because…well…"tiny" he was not…being a big, massive mountain of a nineteen-year old.

"Oh, yeah, there's a two-girl act outside that wants to see ya."

"Where?"

"Standin near the far table, Princess."

Keyop looked out and grinned. "Cute. One girl might be some kind of weird agent, though?"

"How da ya know that?"

"Trenchcoat, Tiny."

"That's silly, Keyop," said Princess. "I sometimes throw on a trenchcoat in civvies."

Princess, Tiny and Keyop went outside, in just enough time to see two rather striking-looking women standing near the glass doors.

One woman was maybe 5' 8" in the dark brown high-heeled pumps she had on, and Tiny smiled. She seemed to be a looker. She had on a baggy old buff-colored trenchcoat that came down to about her knees but couldn't quite hide the fact that she was slender and lanky. At the open neckline of her trenchcoat, she had on a very light tan turtleneck sweater. She had a heart-shaped face that Tiny had seen somewhere; on some actress, maybe? She had honey-blonde hair that went down to her shoulders, a nose with a cute little pout at the end, small bow-shaped lips, and pretty dark shades that looked expensive. Tiny guessed she had on a skirt under her coat; the legs he could see from the knees down were bare, had shapely calves, and a subdued pink pedicure showed through her open-toed pumps. Something about her spelled "money".

The other woman was the one Tiny was tempted to ask out. She was taller than her friend, almost six feet tall in her heels. She was also a blond, but her hair was a lighter golden shade than her friend's. She had sharper features, piercing sapphire-blue eyes, and full lips with red lip gloss on them. She wore a top in bright red with purple trim at the collar and cuffs, had on a cross-shaped pendant and cleavage, and dark purple pants that showed off long, lanky legs most men would die for. She wore bright fire-engine red sandals that matched her top, and her toenails were also as red as a fire engine.

"Ah, ladies?" said Tiny. "Here for the Battle of the Bands?"

"Yes and no," said the first woman in a quiet, refined alto voice. "Kathi, are we playing tonight?" she said as she looked at her friend.

"If you get enough drinks in me I might be up to some fun," said Kathi in a pleasant but strange clipped-sounding voice that Tiny had heard somewhere else, but could not place. "Now, I have the mouth organ for our number. You'll do…"

"Piano and vocals," said the other woman as she smiled at Tiny.

"She's Kathy," said Tiny. "What's _your_ name?"

"Just call me Dawn," she purred. "I'm _sort_ of taken, though."

"Just as I am sort of taken," said Kathi. She motioned Dawn over to a table and sat down, putting a hand over Dawn's. Tiny saw red fingenails that matched the toenails on Kathi; but he saw no nail polish on Dawn's fingers at all. _Now how come this babe only has her toenails done but not her fingers?_ Tiny thought. _Trenchcoat, glasses….weird Spectra goon, maybe? One of these girls is workin' for Spectra, or my name is somethin' else…._

Tiny had things pegged wrong, of course. While one girl was connected with Spectra, it would turn out he had the wrong one…and was at least fifty percent off.

Princess came out a moment later and said, "Would you two like something to drink before you play?"

"Lager and lime for me," said Dawn.

"A Bloody Mary, double Vodka, _please_," snapped Kathi in a somewhat hard voice that Princess disliked. "Shaken, not stirred! And what is Spectra been up to, lately?"

"Well, if you heard the news, they had the Dirty Name Five abducted a while back. I like them. But Zoltar got away again," Princess said.

"Oh, did he?" teased Kathi. "Crying shame, that. I'd like to see what he looks like under that mysterious mask. Wouldn't you?"

"Zoltar is an evil sociopath," said Princess. "I've never quite been interested."

"Ah, but he has that air of _mystery_ about him," said Dawn as she nodded and smiled ironically at Kathi. "He strikes in the middle of the night, always has that mask on, always scurries away at the last minute like a roach…"

"More like a centipede, I'd say," teased Kathi. "Half his mecha look like bugs. The other half, well, you don't want to know what he fantasizes about. Except that it is my guess that it is pretty _weird_."

"There's going to come a day when the Federation will get sick of Spectra," said Dawn. "Don't you think so?"

"They are sick of them," said Princess. "That's why we have G-Force and Galaxy Security."

"Nice kids, G-Force," said Dawn rhetorically. _You don't remember me; good_, she thought. _At least not like this. Incredible what a trenchcoat can do for a girl._ "But there might come a time when the Federation might pull in bigger guns than just G-Force."

"Now, when's that?" said Kathi.

"Let's say they pull something off that is so outrageous that you can't ignore it. Then they promote themselves from _terrorists_ to _galactic empire_. When we have to deal with out-and-out _empires_, now, we have much bigger things to use than birds," said Dawn. She whistled a few notes of a haunting anthem that Princess couldn't place. "And we have much nastier weapons to use; if called upon. I bet Zoltar would love to know he's putting his head in a noose if he keeps this up. Right?"

Kathi gave her friend a dirty look and said, "Now, that would be _genocide!_ You know what those maniacs in that old wreck of a ship did to Gamilon! Oh, they had to, but…"

"I'd say Gamilon started it years ago, we finished it," said Dawn as she clapped her hands hard. "You were in diapers, then, I'll bet, Kathi. Old Gamilon before it was remade was a place that would make the stories of Spectra seem like a garden spot by comparison. Storms. Sulphuric acid rain. Volcanoes. A pitiable world, but Desslok had his reasons."

"How do you know that?" said Kathi. "Do you have his phone number or something? Or do you lay Desslok out on the couch once a week and give him psychotherapy, Doctor?"

"I'm not about to tell you how I know about Desslok," said Dawn as she played with her coaster.

Then, the doors opened, and Jason and Mark ran in.

Jason was the taller of the two, with the more craggy appearance and wild eyes burning with anger. "Damned CHICKENS!" he yelled. "I wish that I had some weapons."

"Now, Jason, calm down," said Mark, who looked tall, boyish and handsome but who somehow sounded like a prig at times. Then, he looked at Princess. "Princess, who are these strange women?"

"Dawn and Kathi," said Princess. "They're a duo and they'll be performing in a few minutes."

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" Mark asked as he looked at Dawn.

"Is it wise to go into that here?" said Dawn as she winked at Princess and made her turn a little red. "It was a long time ago," she said to Princess. "I think he was playing with action figures when I last met him."

"What about you?" said Princess. "Weren't you playing with action figures, too?"

The youngish-looking woman chuckled a low, musical chuckle and said, "Dear. You look a bit young, but the first thing you should learn is, don't probe a lady about her age."

"Especially not _me_," snapped Kathi in a harsh voice that made Mark's ears perk up. He had heard a voice like that before, but it made no sense in the current context, especially coming from a pretty woman in Jill's Place.

"Where do I _know_ you from?" snapped Mark.

"We do not want to get into that here, either," said Kathi.

The doors opened again, and a slightly boyish-looking man in a grungy Defense Forces flight jacket, watch cap, and jeans came into the café'. He had on sunglasses, too, but they were brown, revealing a hint of hard eyes. However, when Dawn saw him, Princess could not help noticing a visible, enigmatic smile coming to her face as she nodded to the man. He nodded back once with almost the same sort of gruff samurai nod that Mark used on occasion. Taking a table on his own, he nodded to a waitress as she took his drink order.

"I"d better get back behind the bar," said Princess. "See you guys later."

"Nice talking with you," said Dawn.

"My pleasure," said Kathi stiffly.

* * *

A few minutes later, after two really terrible bands played, Princess stood before a brick wall by the stage of the recently renovated Jill's Place and said, "Our next act is a pianist and harmonica player. Two lovely ladies, who call their act "Opposites Attract." Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Dawn on the piano and Kathi on harmonica."

Dawn nodded and immediately began a glissando on the piano as a few people nodded and cheered in recognition of the rather old 20th century piece being played by the youngish-looking pianist (who was really forty-three but very well preserved). Then, Kathi began playing an angry, mournful harmonica in counterpoint with the song as Dawn began to sing in a beautiful, wistful alto, "_It's Nine O'Clock on a Saturday…. Regular crowd shuffles in….there's an old man sitting next to me…makin' love to his tonic and gin_…"

Dawn continued with, "_girl, can ya play me a melody…_" (changing the gender of the singer, herself, of course) "_Not really sure how it goes…_"

It soon became obvious that Dawn had changed Billy Joel's "_Piano Man_" subtly to "_Piano Gal_", but she otherwise did a good job with the classic, just making a subtle change when she spotted her friend at the bar nursing a Sapporo beer and she sang with a nod to him, "_Now Mike at the bar is a friend of mine…he gets me my drinks for free…and he's quick with a joke…_"

"They're buddies," said Jason.

"Who?" said Tiny.

"Miss Trenchcoat and Mister Sailor there," said Jason. "They know each other from someplace."

"He's military," said Mark. "The way he's leaning against the bar. Looks like he's reconnoitering the place."

Dawn continued singing as Mark caught more slightly different lyrics as she sang, "…_he says, Novelle, I believe this is killin' me…as a smile ran away from his face…well I'm sure that I could be a movie star, if I could get out of this place…_"

"She keeps on changing the words a little," said Jason. "Is it because she's a girl, or is it some subtle code?"

"She's older than a girl, maybe early thirties," said Mark. "And Miss Harmonica there looks younger than she does. I don't know where she got those clothes from…"

"Bleep-bp.." muttered Keyop. "Spectra Rummage Sale? Dig those weird purple pants…"

"That's not nice to say about a woman," said Mark.

"She looks sorta like….oh, this is nuts…Spectra hasn't done crap for three weeks now," said Jason in a whisper.

Kathi went crazy with her harmonica while Dawn banged hard at the piano and sang, "…_.and the microphone smells like a beer…and they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and say 'gal, what are YOU doin' here?'..._"

Mark nodded along and smiled shyly at Princess as they finished up and drew applause. They got up, bowed, and someone yelled "encore, ladies!"

"Let's do _that_ one," said Kathi.

"No," said Dawn.

"Yes," said Kathi. "I can play my harmonica. Get your guitar."

Dawn nodded and got an acoustic guitar and strapped it on while Kathi leered at the crowd with a demented-looking grin and stepped up to the mike. She said, "Our next number is another old one, really old, called "_Talking World War III Blues_" by Bob Dylan, God rest his soul. I will be singing, while our girlfriend here gives you some finger-picking…"

Dawn began to play chords and pick strings as Kathi laughed and blew her harmonica into the mike as she began to sing, "_Some time ago a crazy dream came to me…  
I dreamt I was walkin' into World War Three…I went to the doctor the very next day…"_

As she blew her harmonica, Jason said, "I think that lady singing there is a mental case…."

"Why do you say that?" said Mark.

"Considering we're fighting a low-level war…"

Kathi continued with, "_Well, the whole thing started at 3 o'clock fast…It was all over by quarter past…I was down in the sewer with some little lover…When I peeked out from a manhole cover…"_

"Maybe we're all nuts," said Tiny.

More singing, strumming, and harmonica playing went on while Kathi just weirded out the crowd with the following rap while Dawn looked at her and shook her head while playing the guitar, "_Well, I seen a Cadillac window uptown…And there was nobody aroun'…I got into the driver's seat…And I drove 42nd Street…In my Cadillac…Good car to drive after a war…_"

"She's kind of funny," said Mark.

"No, kind of sick," said Jason. "Although sometimes, I like sick…" Jason chugged down a beer and said, "I've gotta say something…"

"Jason, don't," said Princess.

"Hey, baby!" yelled Jason. "Who was the last guy you played for? Zoltar?"

Kathi just laughed, tootled away on her harmonica again, and repeated, "_Well, I remember seein' some ad…So I turned on my Conelrad… But I didn't pay my Con Ed bill…"_

The song ground on to its strange end as a few people booed.

* * *

Later on, G-Force left while they let Dawn and Kathi look at their trophies. They won Second Place and a few hundred credits.

To no one's surprise, Dawn left with her guitar case _and_ Mike, bidding everyone goodnight while Kathi walked around and then said to Jason, "Like to go out anywhere?"

"No, thanks, not tonight. Got a race next day and I've gotta get some sleep."

"Too bad," grinned Kathi as she put on her lipstick again. "It would have been…"

Then, a cell phone rang in her purse. "Excuse me," she said. "I must go and freshen up a bit…"

She went into the ladies' room as she said, "Yes?" into the phone (which had a few extra buttons on it for encyrption, all very illegal). She was inside a toilet stall while she worked on touching up a chipped toenail with some polish.

"My Lord," said the rough voice at the other end. "We want you at New Golden Gate Park at midnight. We have to pick you up before we begin 'Operation Roach Motel'…"

"Brock," mumbled 'Kathi', "Someone might hear you. The line is secure, but you do not blurt out our plans. I am still in the civilians' place. Unfortunately, my murder target slipped away on me…"

"I thought you wanted her abducted, Lord."

"I was leaning towards poisoning, but I could never get the powder out of the heel of my disguise. Another opportunity lost to us."

"The scanners are ready…"

"Good. If we find anyone with substanial cerebonic bionics, it might be one of those G-Force brats," whispered Kathi. "I have to go," she said as she hung up.

Princess had just come into the bathroom to wash her face.

She looked oddly at Kathi and finally brought herself to say. "Are you all right?"

"Preoccupied. How did my friend and I sound tonight?"

"Good, but your song was a little odd. Almost…morbid."

Kathi laughed. "It made people think. Don't you have to admit that?"

Princess nodded. Then, Kathi got a cigarette pack out of her purse. "Want one?"

"I don't smoke. Interferes with my wind. I run and do some martial arts," said Princess.

"Name?" said Kathi. "I see Jill is not here tonight?"

"Oh, my name is Traci."

"Traci," said Kathi. "Pretty little name."

"Thank you. Do you play anything else?" said Princess.

"Some guitar. That Dawn is better at it than I am."

"How did you two meet?" said Princess.

"A little less than a year ago at Abbey Road Studios in London in Anglia. We were hangers-on of a sort at a Dirty Name Five session."

"You know them?" said Princess.

"In a manner of speaking," said Kathi with no small irony as she thought of how she had used that night to spy on both them, _and_ the accursed Terran officer. "Dawn's little sister, let us call her Aurora, is an 18-year old keyboard prodigy. Dirty Name Five caught word of her and got her to jam on one of their sessions, and Aurora brought her big sister. They knew someone and got up in the booth. Then, in a free moment, Dawn began playing around with a piano, and I pulled out my mouth organ and we started to jam. Then we exchanged e-mail addresses. Friend of a friend. Dawn has kids. Had to run to get back to the sitter."

"She looks so young. How could she have had children?" said Princess.

"People do what suits them. I have my children, too," said Kathi. "I…"

Then, her phone rang again. "I have to go," said Kathi. She walked off without a goodbye, by-your-leave, or goodnight.

_Rather rude, _Princess thought. _Not like Dawn. She's funny, reminds me of someone a lot nicer. This one reminds me…sort of…of Zoltar's sister Mala…strange…maybe I should tell the team…_

* * *

**III. OPERATION ROACH MOTEL**

**EARTH: NORTH AMERICA**

**THE PACIFIC COAST**

**UTO** **CITY: UTO PENINSULA**

**New Golden Gate Park**

**September 6, 2221**

* * *

Kathi smoked another cigarette, waiting nervously for her pickup.

Finally, the shimmering of a warp fade-in appeared for a moment in the park, and a small plane appeared and came to a quick landing near a grove of trees.

Kathi took off her heels and ran towards the plane, climbing into the aft place of the small ship.

In the forward place of the plane sat Brock, the long-deposed ruler and freaky dictator of Planet Mir. Tonight, he was not in his uniform; he wore a three-piece suit, opera cape, and a fedora that, if possible, made him look weirder than he did in his Spectran officer's uniform.

"Where were you tonight?" said Kathi as she climbed in.

"_La Boheme_," said Brock. "I like opera, you know. Better than that folk-rock that you fancy…"

"I almost had her dead," said Kathi as they took off, and shimmered out in a warp.

"Who?" said Brock.

"You know who," said Kathi as she slipped her sandals back on. Then, she reached under her sleeve and thumbed a small bracelet with the cat-like Spectran skull on it.

It was one of Spectra's newest inventions; a counterpart to G-Force's birdstyles. Kathi shimmered for a moment, distorted, and then Brock smiled as he looked in the aft place….

…and saw Zoltar grinning at him.

"Nice job, Lordship," said Brock. "It would be disturbing had you not confided in me your true nature."

"We only speak of that in _private_," snapped Zoltar. "My gender, we speak of only in private. The fact that there really is no discrete person known as Mala, my "sister", we only speak of in private. As is the fact that I am far older than I look. A mutant. Made by the Luminous One long ago, discarded, left for dead in a lava pit and then pulled out by the Great Spirit in his previous incarnation, cast through time, and then brought back again. I divulge what I am to _only a few! ARE WE CLEAR?"_

"Yes, Lord."

"The Great Game," mused Zoltar. "The race from which the Luminous One came…toying with life. Giving us the mecha and designs, making me what I am, and giving the Terrans…"

"Aren't you really an Earthling?" said Brock.

"SILENCE!" screamed Zoltar. "I was born in madness one hundred and eighty years ago in a laboratory pit. The Great Spirt and his race supplying both sides, and letting us loose to fight in the chaos of the Wars of Unification on Earth. Gatchaman gave his miserable life in that war. Then, he sees to it that the technology is spread out, and the Game begins again, new cast of characters after Earth gets dragged screaming like a baby into the Galaxy by Gamilon planet bombs. They think it will be more fun, this time, I bet. Not syndicates fighting on one world but a battle of planets. Demented but amusing. Am I amused or am I filled with hate?" Zoltar then began to laugh as the plane parked inside the newest Spectra Mecha they had docked with.

A Roach.

A Giant Cockroach, maybe eighty meters long.

Zoltar and Brock's seats undocked from the escape plane and went up a lift into the master cockpit of the Cockroach as Zoltar laughed and put on an 8-track tape.

It was the Rolling Stones' version of "_Harlem Shuffle_". Zoltar turned his music up loud as he began to make his Roach emerge from its bunker in New Golden Gate Park. "_Mooove it to to the Left…_" he sang as Brock held his ears. "_Mooove it to the Right_!" he screamed, laughing away as the Roach burst out through some trees and made a random couple scream. One of its clawed feet smashed a poor girl in a miniskirt into the grass, broke her pelvis, and left her dangling as the giant insectoid leg came up with her impaled on it. She was smashed into the grass, dead, the first casualty of the night, as the first thing her boyfriend found of her was a bloody woman's pump.

He screamed when he found the rest of her.

Zoltar did not care.

He would have bigger fish to fry tonight.

* * *

…**TO BE CONTINUED**


	2. Chapter 2

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by "Yuki Wildstar" and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

_Well, here we go with Chapter Two. Thanks to you, GoldAngel and Summer39, dear friends, for the encouraging review as we go on and delve more into the weird, weird, WEIRD mind of Zoltar and his/her latest attack. I hope you like this chapter, and thanks again for the reviews!_

**CHAPTER TWO: OPERATION ROACH MOTEL CONTINUES**

**NOTE: **_A note of clarification is that in my head (an odd but interesting idea), BOTH Gatchaman and BOTP have taken place in this odd AU. Gatchaman, in my head, anyway, took place around 2069-78, all on Earth, for the most part, in the chaos after World War III/The Wars of Unification. Berg Katze, naturally, went down into that lava pit at Cross Karakoram, and very few know what happened to him/her; save for Generalissimo X/Z. At the same time, attacks from another world were beginning as Earth's nascent solar system bases were getting hit by a second new, more mysterious race around the 2060's. Around 2180 or so, that race made its first formal demand on Earth and revealed itself to be the Gamilon Empire. After the Years of Fire (the late 2100's and early 2200's), Earth and its interstellar allies began to colonize other worlds…bringing us up to the current day in 2221…. _

* * *

**I. DO ROBOTS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SUSANS?**

**Earth: ISO Center Neptune Base**

**SOMEWHERE IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC OCEAN**

**September 6, 2221**

**2345 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

"That poor couple in the park," said a slightly pompous yet anxious robotic voice. "Have you ever seen Zoltar doing anything so horrible? The automatic censor circuit didn't catch that one, so I saw the whole thing," said the little grey and gold hunk of robot known as 7-Zark-7. "Zoltar is becoming more insane every day. These terroristic attacks from Spectra make me wish I could go out there myself with G-Force and smash in Zoltar's head; or they would if I wasn't so scared of him…"

The viewer came up in Zark's control room a moment later as demented laughter came over the speakers. "Good _evening_! Is anyone there from your rotten G-Force _awake_?"

"Oh, no! ZOLTAR!" cried 7-Zark-7 as he saw the dreaded face on the screen and tried to hide. Still, the ten-year old collection of nuts, bolts, and circuits had enough presence of mind to hit a switch on one of his perpetually smeared screens to begin recording Zoltar. "What do you want this time, you madman?"

"I am busy wrecking New Golden Gate Park, in case you have not noticed," sneered Zoltar. "The body count is five so far."

"They'll evacuate Uto City soon; you won't get anyone else, Zoltar!"

"Oh, what sort of rose-colored glasses are _you_ wearing?" Zoltar sneered. "I delight in murder. Tell G-Force I am chasing several Galaxy Security agents and meddling Earth Defense agents around this park and I have sucked up two of them already. My ship is like a Roach Motel; for people! People get sucked in, and they NEVER come out! Let those teenagers know that if they do not surrender to me in one hour, I will take these Earthlings back to Spectra, where they will be tortured, mind-probed, and have Fates worse than Death visited upon them before I vaporize them if I am really in a bad mood! Then, I'll find a way to make you all surrender to me! Thrilled yet? And, oh, yes, robot. Spectra has NO employee retirement plan! HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

"You're horrible, Zoltar," said Zark.

Zoltar faded out with demented laughter.

* * *

In the cockpit of the roach, Brock told Zoltar, "We've vacuumed up three agents so far. I think one is a pilot. Corporal Milaz will let us know the kid's identity within the hour!"

"EXCELLENT!" laughed Zoltar as he played about with the necklace he had been wearing in his/her shape as "Kathi" or "Mala" in the club earlier that night. The gender-bending maniac was tempted to flip on an 8-track of Lou Reed's "_Walk on the Wild Side_" but he/she instead contented himself with using the Roach's mandibles to shoot liquid fire into a wooden picnic pavilion, turning the place into a burning torch in a moment.

He then turned the mecha onto Federation Avenue, smashed two police aircars called to the scene with the mecha's legs, and fired two particle beams into an EDF Space Marine Armored Personnel Vehicle already dispatched to the scene. Marines ran out for their lives. Two of them had enough wits to fire some "Bopper Gun" RPG's at the Thing's belly, causing some minor damage. Zoltar ignored them as he fired at an apartment building, just for the fun of seeing a few families dying.

"Lord Zoltar!" said Brock.

"Yes? I am having too much fun!" said Zoltar.

"Scanners spotted two EDF agents five hundred meters to the south. They are trying to make cover in the park. And the cerebonics sensors are spotting people with implants mucking about. Which ones do you want to see?"

"The closest ones first," said Zoltar. "So I can suck them up or squash them! Maybe both!" Zoltar turned callously away from the burning apartment as he looked at his scanners. "Hello, Dawn," he sneered. "Or should that be Mrs. Nova Wildstar?"

"You've been tracking the Rear Admiral and Captain Wildstar MD themselves?" said Brock in awe.

"I have been tracking Nova Wildstar and her husband Derek for about a year between other little projects," sneered Zoltar. "Waiting for the perfect opportunity to capture or kill her or her cursed husband. G-Force is one thing, but I loathe Earth Defense even more. Those two are among the few officers that they have who are not hemmed in by tons of bureaucratic thinking and the military curse of completing every form in triplicate! Part of me wants _them_ as badly as G-1! Part of me knows if they ever dispatch their insane, accursed blue and red space battleship _Argo_ or _Yamato_ or whatever they call that hunk of junk and its band of trained killers and space pirates to Spectra from its place in mothballs, my Empire is doomed!"

"One beat-up twenty-two year old ship. What can they do with it?" sneered Brock. "My Naval Forces flattened the EDF Space Battleships _Kirishima_ and _Texas_ and their cruiser and destroyer escorts in encounters out near Sirius and the edge of the Crab Nebula in the past four months alone. We would have gotten the Spacecraft Carrier _Ranger_, too, save for the fact that the Rigans helped defend it."

"Yes, and due to the fact that G-Force brought down your new Centipede Carrier Mecha," yelled Zoltar. "You told me that was going to _work_!"

"While we are arguing, the Wildstars are getting into the trees," said Brock. "And, sir, what about the cerebonicially enhanced agents we are picking up?"

"Ignore them for the nonce! Time to hit the gas," laughed Zoltar. "Get the regular Earthlings! They can't outrun me! They don't even have any rotten cerebonics like G-Force! Then we'll see if there are nasty little G-Force pigeons around for me to play with!"

* * *

In the woods of New Golden Gate Park, "Dawn" had long-ago ditched her sunglasses and her pumps; both of which were stuffed in the pockets of her trenchcoat. She ran barefoot in the grass with her coat flying open as the warm night air blew around her skirt-clad legs and sweater.

"You tell me what this reminds you of, Nova…shoot!" said the 43-year old man who ran along beside her. He had gotten rid of his watch cap and sunglasses, but the longish, now slightly grey-streaked chestnut hair of Rear Admiral Derek Wildstar looked awfully young and reassuring to Nova Wildstar MD in the night.

Nova's commanding officer, her pet psychological project, her lover, her soulmate, and her best friend smiled at her as she said, "The Gamilon Space Tanks on Titan, 2199, Derek. I've gotten a better wind since then, but I can't go on running forever! Our kids must be getting awfully worried back at the Hotel Orion Embassy with Mom and Dad!"

"Who the hell says we're _running_?" grinned Derek. "Didn't you have a mission to slip Zoltar a mickey?"

"Had the needle in my purse the last month, love. Yes."

"I think you might get to use it tonight," he grinned.

"You always have this gift of making me smile," Nova said. "When I do not want to kill you, Admiral, sir."

"Yeah," said Wildstar as he grabbed Nova's hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA, Mrs. Nervous Norvus! About-face, THIS way!"

"Derek, we're running FOR that thing?"

"Yup," said Wildstar with an evil grin as he whipped out his Astro-Automatic with the other hand. "Window dressing. Got other toys in my pockets."

"Toys," huffed Nova. "I hope they're not Starventura dolls."

"Steve's newest brainstorm," smiled Derek, referring to Captain Stephen Sandor, the genius scientist and engineer who was their old comrade. "They dragged him and the _North Carolina_ in and pulled him off that command as Skipper because they smelled trouble."

Nova nodded as Derek shot at the Spectran mecha with his sidearm.

"Lord," said Brock up in the cockpit, which was above and behind the Roach's head. "That middle-aged fart is shooting at us!"

"Waawwhahahahahahha, okay, Wildstar, who do you think you are…._Captain Kirk!_?" sneered Zoltar. "Overaged and fat but dangerous. You should be selling margarine next! Ready the vacuum proboscis!"

Brock pulled a few switches, and a huge clear pipe emerged from the mecha's head like some ugly proboscis from some nightmare fly. Zoltar grinned, hit a switch, and started up a titanic vacuum cleaner located in the belly of the beast.

Nova screamed and grabbed onto a tree as her skirt and coat were pulled towards the vacuum unit. She got out her own sidearm and got off two shots before the thing's vacuum ripped it out of her hand.

Then, she fell and tried to hold on as she realized that the Mecha was getting closer.

_Damned thing_, she thought.

Then, Derek came up behind her, scooped her up like a doll, and ran about twenty meters to the Roach's underbelly, between the thing's legs.

Two firing ports opened, and two green-clad Spectran goons appeared up in the Roach's underbelly and started shooting at them. _Machine gun bullets,_ thought Derek. _These guys are pathetic, and they can't shoot!_

* * *

In the meantime, Mark was getting a Scramble signal from 7-Zark-7. He yelled into his wristband communicator, "Okay, what's up?"

"I just got a message from Zoltar! He wants you and G-Force to surrender, or he says he'll wreck the city!"

"Yeah, like he thinks I'm gonna _surrender_," snapped Mark. "TRANSMUTE!" he yelled after hitting his wristband.

A pattern of colored lights swirled around Mark as he transmuted into G-1, the Eagle. Princess became G-3 a moment later as her pink Birdstyle appeared, and Jason ran up as the Condor in his dark brown Birdstyle.

"Where's Tiny and Keyop?" demanded Mark.

"Tiny took Keyop off to the rendezvous point with the _Phoenix_ at the airfield," said Jason. "They're bringing her here to the park when they can find a landing spot! I'll get my damn missiles back in twelve minutes!"

"Shouldn't we be going to the airfield, too?" asked Princess as she followed Mark and Jason into the park.

"Tiny will be here soon. In the meantime, we know where Zoltar is. He's in that bug leading the attack personally," said Mark. "Let's get in there somehow and get him!"

"Stupidest thing he ever will have done once we get our claws into that psychotic son-of-a-_bitch_," snapped Jason.

* * *

"Now what is the Commander doing?" pouted Zark back in Center Neptune.

"He's awfully mad," said a breathy voice from across the room as Zark's antennae came up.

"Oh, Susan. How are things on Pluto?"

"I wish they were better, Zark," said the voice of the Pluto Sector perimeter defense system computer. "I'm wondering if this is….creature-feature night, Zark. I'm really scared!"

"Susan, what's going on out there by Pluto?"

"The 21st Earth Defense Forces Patrol Fleet is in a battle with…R'Khell cruisers!"

"I hate to say this, but even a robot like me can forget things because I'm always on duty," said Zark. "Refresh me on who the R'Khells are…"

"The R'Khells are a rebel faction of part of what used to be the…Rikashan Empire. They broke away from Rikasha back in 2202 around the time that Lord Ekogaru tried to invade Earth. The the two Empires have been in a deadly war ever since. The R'Khells were allies of the Comet Empire when it tried to strike Earth again in 2205 to 2207 in Space War IV. The R'Khells do periodic terror attacks every few months or so…just like Spectra. Some people think they might have an alliance of some kind."

"Zoltar dealing with the R'Khells and their mad leader Doctor Sandberg, that traitor from Earth?" said Zark with a shiver. "That makes my circuits want to melt."

"You make parts of _me_ want to melt, too," cooed Susan. "And I don't mean my circuits!"

"I don't get that one," said Zark.

"You need to be a few years older, Zark," purred Susan. "And you _are_ cute…"

Zark's antenna popped up and his cape waved.

Then, he went back to polishing his video screens….

* * *

In the meantime, back in New Golden Gate Park, Derek and Nova were still under the roach's belly when Derek pulled up his shirt slightly. He had a harness on under his jacket and shirt. He thumbed a switch, and a small explosive charge went off, shooting a rapelling cable and its magnetic head up into the roach's metal belly. Derek then grabbed Nova and flicked another switch, and a small motor in the rig auto-rapelled both of them up to the underbelly of the roach. Derek spotted a hatch and shot at the lock. He and Nova then kicked together and banged the hatch open and went up into the mecha.

Spectra troopers were all around them at once, firing away as Nova screamed. For a minute, the goons thought she was frightened, until her feet connected with a trooper's neck and knocked him off-balance. Nova stole his carbine out of his shocked hands and pumped a few rounds into his chest. Armed, she tumbled next to her husband as both of them got behind a hatch for cover and fired away.

"Feels like old times, doesn't it?" grinned Derek. "We've still got it!"

"Good thing I never let myself get fat and eat bon-bons after having the kids," Nova teased back, smiling at her husband. The next Spectran goon who shot at her was not met with a smile, but with a furious _kiai_ from her suddenly gritted teeth as she fired and got him in the head.

Derek fired away and got two more, and then he yelled, "Come back, you _cowards_!" as three Spectran guards decided that these two weren't worth risking their lives or pay over. "We're asking Zoltar for a raise!" yelled one of them as he ran off.

"No, make it _hazard_ pay!" said the other goon.

Then, the goon opened up a hatch at the other end of the corridor and screamed.

The reason why was because he was staring Mark of G-Force right in the face! "AAAAAAGH!" he yelled. "G-FORCE!"

"Now they all know we're here," snorted Jason. "You wanna take him or should I?"

"Wanna flip for it?" quipped Mark.

"You take him," said Jason as he leaned against the bulkhead. Then, a hatch opened near him, and two more goons ran out.

Jason flipped about and whipped two feather shuriken into their necks while Mark kicked another goon against the bulkhead. "You're going that way," he said. "Lead us to the cockpit!"

"Not that way, not that way, please, please, please, please, _please_!" gibbered the Spectran trooper under his fanged mask/helmet.

"Oh?" grinned Mark. "Something at the other end of that corridor you're _scared_ of?"

Another goon ran out and screamed as he was caught in a blue streak of laser energy coming out from the shadows at the other end of the corridor.

"Hmmm," said Jason. "Either Spectra is having a really bad family quarrel, or we've got help."

Another goon ran out from another hatch, firing at the shadows, and screaming as a laser bolt caught him in the leg. He fell, yelling, "HAVE MERCY!"

Mark's eyebrows went up, until he heard a low growl of "…_..kuso_" from the other end of the corridor and he saw two figures advancing.

Jason was shocked as he spotted "Dawn" first-with her sunglasses off, and he blurted out, "You're on _our_ side?"

"Exactly. Besides, Spectra's not hiring this week, sorry," said "Dawn's" partner as he emerged from the shadows with a slight grin. Only then did Mark and Jason finally figure out that this couple happened to be the famous Wildstars, right out of the history tapes and into their battle.

"You two are still _active_?" said Jason.

Derek nodded and said, "We don't hit retirement age for another twenty-four years yet. Besides, being behind a desk all the time is _booooooriiiing_."

Then, Princess ran in. "Mark! I figured out from hacking their computers where the prison deck of this thing is…I…_oh!_?" she said as she saw Derek and Nova Wildstar. She looked at "Dawn". "…You're…"

Nova walked forward and extended a hand. "Captain Nova Dawn Wildstar MD," she said as she shook hands with a startled Princess. "I haven't met you since you were very, very small, back at a wedding reception. But I've been looking into the project now and then. Even though Anderson and I have some differences about it."

"Differences?" asked Derek.

"Oh, you were off on the _Nagato_ with Second Fleet on that one cruise when Anderson and I had that big argument not long after Teresa was born," Nova said. "That was right after I finished my internship. I told him he didn't really have informed consent to experiment on these kids because they were minors."

"Actually, he was our legal guardian, even though he never adopted us," said Jason. "He signed on the dotted line to make us what were are now."

"Conflict of interest," snorted Nova as she paused to put on a pair of boots she was carrying.

"Where'd you get _those_ from?" said Mark.

"A Spectran trooper who didn't need them anymore," Nova said. "The decks of this mecha thing are kind of dirty.I like to go barefoot on tatami or a rug, not greasy decks."

"Where's that prison?" snapped Derek. "We're going there."

"I'm sorry, sir," said Mark pointedly. "You're Earth Defense and you don't command this team."

"Professional courtesy?" said Derek. "I hear you people sometimes defer to Colonel Cronus of Riga. Besides, those guys have a pilot I want back _very_ badly after we stop this thing. Where's the reactor level?"

"Same deck as the prison," said Princess.

"Good…we want our prisoner back," said Nova.

"Who?" said Jason.

"Jonathan," hissed Admiral Wildstar.

"What's a Jonathan?" said Mark.

"Lieutenant Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar, who is now twenty-eight and my second Black Tiger squadron leader," said Derek. "He means something else to Nova and I, too."

"What?" asked Princess.

"Just our adopted eldest son," Nova said.

"Yeah, I'd have to be crazy to abandon my oldest son," said Derek with a deep, angry conviction. "Or _any_ of my kids. Any man who would just totally abandon his children…I'd have nothing but contempt for a man like that!"

Behind his visor, Mark's eyebrows went up at that. _So this is personal for them_, he thought. Then, it hit him. _He's not like __my__ father, who abandoned me. I know he's alive somewhere. But where is he and how come he never tries to find me? _

"How many kids do you two have?" quipped Jason.

"Less talking, more looking for those prisoners," said Mark as he and Admiral Wildstar exchanged nods. "Our pickup will be here soon, so we're gonna have to boogie!"

"Good; besides, I have my job," said Nova.

"Which is?" said Princess.

"We're looking for _him_ next," Nova said.

"Who?" said Princess.

"Zoltar. And be guaranteed I will not be prescribing him an aspirin or offering him my Spring Water," Nova said.

"Where's the nearest access ladder to that deck?" snapped Derek.

"This way," replied Princess.

* * *

**II. A TEMPORARY PARTNERSHIP**

**Earth**

**UTO** **CITY: UTO PENINSULA**

**New Golden Gate Park**

**September 7, 2221**

**0008 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

Down they went, an unusual set of five, acting as one, for the moment. Two sets of heroes from different times, against one set of madmen at long last.

"Who's got the firepower to blow a reactor?" asked Jason.

Derek patted his coat. "I have two charges. When we find that reactor, we're planting them, giving it a hundred and eighty seconds and running the other way," he said.

"How'd you get into this line of work, sir?" asked Jason.

"Ever read your history in school?" said Derek. "I decided to get some revenge the day the Gamilons got my parents."

"Hmmm…sounds familiar," said Jason with a twisted grin. "You and I might be two of a kind."

"Then I was there to pick up the pieces; especially since he thought his brother Alex was dead," Nova added. "I did need to housebreak him a little first," she said as she nodded at Princess. "When you fight and work with someone for a couple of years first, settling down and having a family after the wars ended was the easy part. Although he still leaves the toilet seat down at times."

"I do _not_," said Derek.

"What about last week?" Nova said. "Before we left for North America?"

"Hey! I was rushing around then," said Derek as he got out a small charge which said "H" on its barrel while holding his sidearm. "I…"

"Halt!" yelled a Spectran Sergeant in yellow. "_Who goes there_?"

"You don't need to _see_ our identification," winked Jason as he made a hand gesture.

"I don't need to see…_wait_!" yelled the Sergeant. "Three members of G-Force, a scruffy guy, and a girl in a trenchcoat!"

"Scruffy guy may be your worst nightmare," snapped Derek as he trained his weapon on the Spectran while Nova held a weapon on the other enemy troops. "Show us to the reactor or get your damned head blown off!"

"Not much of a choice, _bud_. This way," said the Spectran, who grinned as he sidled over to a hatch and then hit a red emergency button.

He fell down a moment later after Princess tore his neck open with her yo-yo.

"Sorry about the mess," Princess said.

"A bigger mess may be coming in about thirty seconds," said Mark.

"I think I can sneak us out of this," said Derek as he grabbed a microphone from off the bulkhead and thumbed a button. Then, he said, "Command bridge?"

It turned out he got Brock himself. "What _is_ it?" Brock hissed.

"This is Captain Needleman on the Reactor Deck!" Derek snapped, thinking back to his last cruise on board the _Argo_. "I don't know what kind of techs you have down here, but this guy was just _so_ clumsy!"

"Why was that?" said Brock as he belatedly began to scan the ship while Zoltar slapped his wrist.

"Sergeant Palvitz, Operating Number 33451-Alpha has _really_ screwed up," said Derek as Nova fished in the dead Spectran's back pocket and then handed him the dead Spectran's ID smartcard, helpfully written in Standard as well as in Spectran ideographs. "Wouldn't you know, the jerk tripped on the deck plate and set off a false alarm!" laughed Derek. "You can stand down, sir. I'm gonna have this guy running the ship in his underwear for the next week!"

"What an incompetent!" yelled Zoltar as Mark, Jason, and Princess looked on and nodded with approval at Wildstar's act. "When did you join this ship, Captain?"

"Just last week; I came from the new underground base on Myr," quipped Derek. "Lordship, we need more _discipline _on this vessel." Derek looked at a screen Princess flicked on. "I suggest we stop running around this park in an aimless fashion and try to find military targets in this Earthling town instead…sir. The Luminous One would _love_ it if you returned home with military targets crushed."

"Captain, you may have a point!" snapped Zoltar. "Brock, take this young man's advice and let's scan for military targets!"

"Yessir," said Brock as the mecha stopped.

"Oh, one last thing," said Derek. "Sir, I have three members of G-Force captured! Could you download the lock code for the prison level so I can put these birds into their little cage?"

"Good idea," said Brock. "Lord?"

Zoltar nodded. "He's one of ours….can't hurt!"

Brock downloaded the code.

* * *

"Sometimes, he's so easy to fool that it's pathetic," said Jason a moment later as Princess and Nova worked together on the fly to write down the lock code.

"Don't count Zoltar out yet," said Mark as he fingered his deadly boomerang.

"Got it," said Princess as Nova handed her a piece of paper. "Now, which one of us is going down there?"

"I think you should," said Derek as he looked at Nova, who then responded with, "Yes, Derek. No offense, but I've got a date with Zoltar and I don't want to stand him up." Then, she looked at Derek and said, "I'm sorry, couldn't resist that one. Remember what you said that time about Queen Starsha?"

"Yeah. That was before you were interested in me."

"Wrong. I was interested, but _you_ hadn't caught on yet, Combat Group Leader."

"It's getting thick in here, lovebirds," said Jason. "Princess, which way to that prison level?"

"Two decks down," she said after looking at a screen.

"Get the prisoners and meet us forward," said Derek. Then, he and Nova took off. A moment later, Mark's bracelet communicator went off. "Hey, Commander?" said Tiny.

"Where have _you_ been? Eating spaceburgers?" snapped Mark.

"Naw, tryin' to land with Keyop," responded Tiny. "I found a clearing near this reservoir. I'm takin' her down there and I'll meetcha in a few."

"Big Ten," said Mark.

* * *

A moment later, Wildstar's charges went off, blowing the small reactor and stopping the mecha dead in its tracks.

Princess, Mark and Jason attacked a few more troopers, and then they opened the lock for the prison level.

"_G-Force_!" yelled one of the trapped pilots, who was in an EDF uniform. Another one, in a Rigan uniform in red and white, clapped his fellow prisoner on the shoulder.

"Hold on, Lieutenant Ramsey!" snapped the voice of a taller pilot in black and gold; a Star Force Black Tiger uniform; he had unruly sandy blonde hair and a handsome but angry-looking face. He looked at Mark and said, "How do we know this is not some Spectran trick? They _are_ masters of disguise, after all."

"Your parents are here," said Mark. "They helped us sabotage this bug."

"What color is my mother's hair?" asked the young man.

"Honey-blond; it's very pretty," said Princess. "And your mother has two funny little spitcurls by her cheekbones."

"Okay. They know my parents, Lieutenant Ramsey…Ensign Rikus," said the commanding young man. "Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar…at your service. This man is Lieutenant Ramsey from the _California_, and the Rigan here is Ensign Rikus of the Red Rangers unit. They took us all on different missions; mostly by subterfuge."

"Doesn't sound cool," said Jason. "Hey. Do you have bracelets on?"

"I need some help with this," said Rikus as he held out a wrist-it was decorated with a white bracelet with the Spectran Devil Head Crest on it in red. "Torture bracelets. If we discuss something they do not like, they zap us. And they might have other functions, too."

"If they do, I don't wanna find out," snapped Hartnell-Wildstar.

"We'll find some way to get them off," said Mark as Princess opened the cell door.

"Now, out we go, and…AAAARRRRGGGH!" screamed Jonathan as he grabbed his bracelet and fell to the deck.

"What's wrong?" said Mark.

"They're _torturing_ me with this!" said Jonathan. "I don't know how to get rid of it!"

"_Damn_ them!" roared Jason.

* * *

In the meantime, up forward, Nova and Derek Wildstar shot down two Spectran guards and kicked open a hatchway as they got into the head of the Roach.

"G-FORCE!" yelled Zoltar at the noise.

"Boy, are _you_ guys wrong!" mocked Derek while Nova pulled something from out of her purse. "A guy dressed like a bug and a big purple weirdo?"

"Listen, Earthling boy, I am Lord Zoltar of Spectra!" snapped Zoltar as he stood up and held a gun on Derek. "Why did you stop my mecha?"

"We don't take kindly to giant vermin on Earth, you scum! And we've met before, although I think you may be too stoned to remember," Derek said as Nova coughed a little and fanned in front of her face to get rid of the smell of...whatever these two had been smoking. "Sorry. Surrender now! It's long past time for you to face justice," Derek snapped.

"Lord, G-Force is running all over the place on this ship, too, according to my sensors" said Brock. "We're sunk."

"Hello, Zoltar," said Nova as she extended her right hand towards Zoltar in a handshake while keeping her left behind her back. "May I have your autograph?"

"Well, this is a new one," Zoltar said as he looked at Brock. "Of course, my dear lady," he said as he slipped something out of his uniform pocket.

It looked like a spray can. In fact, it read "BUG SPRAY" on it. "May I spray your hair, first?"

Nova looked at Derek and raised her eyebrows. He looked at her, and shrugged, as if to say, _Yes, dear, he's nuts._

"_Hey!_ I don't let people spray my hair with insecticide inside a giant roach!" yelled Nova. "If you think this is funny, it's not!"

"And _I_ do not give autographs! So _Sorry_! You will have to come by after a performance of mine someday," snapped Zoltar as he sprayed the "BUG SPRAY" at Nova.

Derek pulled Nova away from the deadly little cloud of poison gas, but she was still able to lash out with a hypodermic needle at Zoltar.

The needle almost got him, but he laughed insanely, pushed a button on his bracelet, and vanished in a shimmer of light.

"_What_?" said Nova.

"I'm afraid he was getting rather bored with this conservation," said Brock. "And so am I," he said as he pulled a few switches.

Before Derek and Nova could react, the door irised shut in their faces, trapping them on the flight deck with Brock. Derek fired at Brock, but he laughed like mad and disappeared, as well.

A moment later, the mecha's bug head fired up and off the body of the Roach on its own. Small wings extended from it as the head, one of Zoltar's typical weird escape ships, launched automatically as programmed by Brock and instead took its two unwilling passengers up into space in about thirty seconds.

By the time Derek and Nova threw themselves into the mecha's seats and began to get control of the weird ship, they were in high Earth orbit.

"Do you think he's dragging us somewhere?" Nova cried.

"I have control. It's just a diversion to get us out of his way while he does something else," Derek replied. "Did you get him, Nova?"

"I missed him by a centimeter!" Nova cried in frustration. "He has the reflexes of some kind of cockroach!"

"Sorry. Stinks…I know," said Derek.

"I don't like roaches in my kitchen _or_ on my planet," said Nova. "Derek, did you figure out the weapons on this thing?"

"Not yet, but…"

"_Attention! Spectran ship_!" barked a voice over their speakers. "Waggle your wings and surrender to us at once! Or we will blow you into space trash!"

"Three objects on radar," Nova said as she looked at her sensors. "Range, one megameter. They're _ours!_ A flight of three Cosmo Tiger II Astrofighters!"

"Yeah. Except that now, we're on the wrong side of those guns and missiles," Derek said.

* * *

On the prison deck, Mark tried to get control of the situation while Jonathan writhed and screamed.

Finally, a moment later, before the shocked eyes of his fellow prisoners and the three G-Force members, Jonathan shimmered away and vanished.

Then, a familiar, hated voice was heard over the ship's speakers.

"Good evening, G-Force!" laughed Zoltar. "Your Wildstars did a nice job in trying to subdue me, but I got _rid_ of them by sending them onto a little trip into space in my mecha so they can be shot down! I'm sorry, but Brock, Jonathan and I must be going…namely, back to Spectra! I hope you get a bang out of my self-destruct circuits as they blow you into your next reincarnation, hopefully as sacred insects!" Zoltar laughed. "I like insects much better than nasty bird science ninja any day! Have a nice day! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

"Zoltar, you jackass!" yelled Jason.

They watched on a screen as another escape mecha roared out a tube in the roach's butt. Zoltar and company roared up into space, executed a warp, and vanished before anyone could take notice of him or pursue him.

A moment later, the roach mecha began to blow…with Mark, Jason, Princess, Ramsey, and Rikus still inside.

Mark began to react, but he fell against the bulkhead, stunned even through his helmet as the mecha began to blow apart….

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED… **


	3. Chapter 3

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

_Thanks again for the reviews and input….now, here we go! _

**CHAPTER THREE: HEARTBREAK HOTEL**

* * *

**I. FLYING HOME…**

**Earth Orbit**

**September 7, 2221**

**0130 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

"Well?" said Nova Wildstar up in orbit in the Roach Mecha's head. They had survived their encounter with the Tigers. By just a hair. Derek had made radio contact just in time. Luckily, the Flight Leader of the planes they were had been up against turned out to have been Commander Flash Contrail, who was now the Group Leader of the Sun Tigers, which was the Flight Group normally deployed to the space battleship _Arizona_. The career pilot had recognized Derek's voice before shooting, so Contrail had called off the attack and was now escorting the Spectran Mecha back home.

"The good news," said Derek as he pulled off his flight jacket and threw it over the back of the chair, revealing a still-buff lean torso clad in a sweaty black t-shirt, "is that I've just managed to reprogram the IFF transponder in this thing so it is giving off an EDF code. Thanks to that IFF unit and Contrail, we should not have any more close encounters…at least with our _own_ planes."

"What's the bad news?" Nova said as she took a cotton swab out of her purse and ran it over a wadded-up tissue she had found on the deck.

"Re-entering might be a little bit tough. This thing's glide path is going to be so weird that it'll make my crazy Super Starfighter seem like driving a luxury aircar."

"That bad, huh?" Nova said.

"And what are you up to with that cotton swab in that mucus? _Yeeeccch_."

"I am hoping I can get some of Zoltar's DNA for an analysis. Even Lord Zoltar has to blow his nose sometime. I'm convinced that girl "Kathi" we saw tonight in that bar was connected to Zoltar. Either his sister or some Galaxy Girl agent…or, at the worst, the R'Khells have some kind of alliance with the Spectrans now."

"Not those guys," said Derek as he pushed some buttons and began to play back the flight recorder. Zoltar's laughter filled the compartment as Derek winced at some of the insults. "Fat? Why does he think I'm _fat_? I am not _fat_!"

"Maybe it's that jacket," Nova said as she stopped her collecting to hug her husband and give him a kiss while rubbing his shoulders. She also had her own coat off, and, beneath the baggy trenchcoat, the turtleneck sweater, suede skirt, and elegant pumps that she had switched back to (since her stolen boots hurt her feet) combined with her still-slender figure to make her look like a woman somewhere between twenty-eight to thirty-six years old. "There's too much tension in your deltoids. Relax," she said.

Admiral Wildstar put his head back, and he said, "This is no longer a bit of isolated terrorism. The past five attacks in the past eight months show they're working up to something really sick, but what?"

"Like the remains of my late aunt's cult," Nova said, "trouble with Spectra began around late 2208, when our second-oldest son and daughter Alex and Ariel weren't even a year old yet. The assassination of Defense Minister Ainsley? Remember that?"

Derek did, all too well, nodding as he concentrated on flying, and on thinking. The bizarre assassination of a member of the Earth Defense Council by Zoltar while he had been disguised as Nova followed by an ident of an alien ship speeding away from Earth towards the Crab Nebula had led to the _Arg_o being deployed for some weeks in the late summer of that year in conjunction with a survey mission of the Sun as Wildstar had led the reunited Star Force in hot pursuit of the enemy ship. They had been forced to pursue Zoltar all the way to the Great Magellanic Cloud, and had almost gotten him (on Gamilon, of all places), but the terrorist madman had gotten away right as they had been about to unmask him. Derek remembered making it home with Nova _just_ in time for his son and daughter's first birthday and then for Nova's first week of Medical School. The babies whose first birthday he had come home for were now each fourteen, and were waiting for their parents in a hotel suite back in Uto City along with their grandparents and their three younger siblings, two of whom had come along as a second set of twins. The Wildstars didn't mind, and neither did Nova's parents; Earth needed children to regenerate humanity after all of the losses the human race had suffered in the late 22nd and early 23rd century due to Earth's space wars.

Nova gave Derek a kiss on the neck and said, "We'll be home soon, Derek."

"Yeah, I hope those G-Force kids and Jonathan are all right," Derek said.

* * *

"Mark, Mark, MARK!" cried Princess.

Mark Anderson, G-1, the Eagle of G-Force, was on the ground on his back, moaning. His white Birdstyle had been somewhat scorched when he had been knocked out, but his cerebonics and the wings of his Birdstyle had worked in concert to cause what would have been a fatal toss out of the exploding Roach Mecha to be nothing more than a bad fall.

Mark blinked his eyes, and he shook his head hard. "_Uhhhhnnn_," he muttered.

"You're all right!" said Princess as she hugged him and allowed herself a few tears.

Mark shook his head, and he muttered, "Princess Traci Yussupov, you look like you've been in a trash compactor."

"Wait until you see what _you_ look like," said Princess as she looked around and then Transmuted out of her battered pink Birdstyle back into her t-shirt, striped jeans, and loafers so that she could get a better idea of where her wounds were. Her jeans were torn and bloody in a few spots, and Mark could see the tips of Princess' toes on her right foot showing through a torn loafer. "I have no idea where Jason is. I saw that pilot of ours named Ramsey landing against a tree."

"How was he?"

"His head was missing," said Princess with a shiver as she sobbed against Mark. "Your shoulder is bleeding!"

"I've been through worse," said Mark as he fingered his lethal boomerang.

"Come in, Mark! COME IN, MARK!" said Tiny over Mark's headset in his helmet.

"Yeah, the Commander's here," Mark said. "And he royally screwed this one up, Tiny!"

"How bad?"

"Well, the Wildstars got shot off into space…"

"We were tracking them," said Keyop. "Brip…boop…_damnit_, sorry. I mean…got a transmission from them. Guess they're alive."

"Good," said Mark. "Where's the Big Purple Smelly Cheese gone?"

"Tracked Zoltar's escape ship to the Moon," Tiny said. "The patrol cruiser _Yalu_ reported back to Earth Defense that they almost got a shot in against him, but he warped away, laughin' like crazy and sayin' he has the Wildstars' kid with him and that Brock goon. Course he abandoned all his guys as usual. I'd hate workin' for Spectra. No retirement plan. You guys got anyone alive?"

"Jason's not answering my signal," said Mark as he pushed his bracelet obsessively. "I don't know where he is…"

Princess jumped up and gasped. "Mark!"

"_Yes?_" he replied.

Princess was pointing to Jason, who was staggering up with a spare Feather Shuriken in one hand. The other one was caught firmly in the throat of a Spectran trooper he had just killed.

"Saved your butts _again_," said Jason. "He was sneaking up on you two."

"We were distracted," said Mark. "Prin's hurt."

"Yeah? We're _all_ hurtin' tonight. This is the crappiest night I've had in a month. One minute, we're _that_ close from getting Zoltar again, next minute, we're all messed up." said Jason scornfully while Princess gave him a rather dirty look. "If the Wildstars _are_ still alive, how are we gonna tell them Zoltar got their kid?"

"Let _me_ work on that one," Mark said.

A moment later, Mark's communicator went off. It was Chief Anderson. "Mark? Come in," he demanded.

"Yes, Chief?"

"The Wildstars have just landed that Spectran mecha that they were in at the military airfield at the edge of town. They are on their way back to the Hotel Orion Embassy downtown. I want you and the team to meet them there and debrief each other on what happened after you secure the _Phoenix_ at the airfield. Jason and Princess are not to use their personal vehicles; a staff car is waiting for you. Be careful when you speak to the Admiral and Captain about the loss of their son. Go in your everyday clothes; the Wildstars all know who you are."

"Big ten, Chief," said Mark as he de-Transmuted back to his normal form.

* * *

**II. AT THE HOTEL…**

**Hotel Orion Embassy**

**September 7, 2221**

**0400 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

All of G-Force had de-transmuted back to their civilian wear by the time they got to the hotel.

The Wildstars were staying in a suite on the sixteenth floor that was guarded by two EDF Space Marines. The Marines must have had their orders; they admitted the four teenagers and one pre-teen to the room without question after looking over their T-shirts and jeans.

When they got in there, they found Admiral Wildstar, in his T-shirt, pajama bottoms, and bare feet, sitting on a couch in the suite with a crying young red-headed woman who looked to be about twenty-seven. The redhead had on a sailor top and shorts, and she looked very young. Sitting beside the redhead was a chubby man with a mustache and glasses in a suit who was about sixty-five now, near him sat a woman with her hair in a bun who was sixty-four; she wore a nightgown and flip-flops.

"Ah, glad to see you've arrived," Derek said. "Nova's in the bedroom reading to the kids to try to get them to go back to sleep; both ours and Jonathan and Felicia's. Yes, we already know…about Jonathan. This young woman here is Felicia Hartnell-Wildstar, the wife of my adopted son Jonathan and my daughter-in-law, and the man with the mustache is Karl Forrester, my father-in-law, and this is Teri Forrester, my mother-in-law. Mister and Mister Forrester, these kids are ISO agents who work with G-Force, namely, Mark Anderson, Jason Asakura, Traci Yussupov, Desmond Harper, and Keyop Jupiter."

Mark and the team shook hands with Nova's parents. Nova's mother Teri hugged Traci and said, "You look no older than my two youngest, who are going on nineteen. How old are you, honey?"

"Sixteen," Princess replied.

"God. I hate these wars and what they do to Earth. The warriors we send out are too young. My Nova was just a little older than you when she first shipped out on the _Argo_ years ago to go to Iscandar. How old were you then?"

"Teri, can't you do math in your head?" joked Karl. "She wouldn't have even been _born_ in 2199. She would have been born around the time the Second Cometine War began in 2205."

"That's right," Traci said. "I sort of remember my mother…not all that well. They say she died in one of the Cometine attacks upon Earth. She was visiting family in New York when it was hit. I was told my father then left me with the orphanage and killed himself out of grief."

"_I feel like killing myself from grief now_!" yelled the redhead as she sobbed while Derek held her. "I hope you people can locate Jonathan! Derek and Nova and those G-Force agents really messed this one up!"

Derek sighed. "You know we did all that we could."

"LIAR!" screamed Felicia as she slapped Derek across the face.

A moment later, Jason's head turned as a door opened. Slipping into the room like a gentle wraith was Nova, who was barefoot in a knee-length simple white nightgown and holding a six-year old girl by one hand; she carried a glass in the other one. The little girl looked a bit like Jonathan with her sandy blonde hair and determined eyes, Jason noted.

"Derek, she began crying for her mother and father," Nova said. "The others know I'll be back. This is the youngest."

"Where's my Daddy?" the young girl. "How come he isn't back yet?" she said as she ran on light little bare feet in her yellow nightie to her mother.

"Staci, these kids here have some bad news," said Felicia as she grabbed the little girl while Nova mixed the glass of water she carried with a swizzle stick in the glass.

"What is it?" she cried.

Princess went to little Staci and held her hands. "Your father's a prisoner of war. Zoltar captured him and took him back to Spectra. G-Force told us this."

"G-Force _stinks_!" screamed the little girl. "I want my Daddy!"

"So do I," said Felicia. "So do I."

"We all want your father home safely," Nova said as she knelt by Felicia and Staci.

"Gramma, you'd better not be lying!" demanded Felicia.

Nova tickled her unlikely grandchild under her chin as she said, "I wouldn't lie to you so close to your birthday, Staci. You had such a nice party and all!"

"I remember being pregnant with her right around the time you had Teresa seven years ago," Felicia said.

"I know. We went to see Doctor Stewart together; that's well after she hitched up with Doctor Sane," Nova said. "We changed their diapers together, got spit up on together, and dealt with the nursing bra and boobs bit together."

Felicia smiled a little. "To think I nearly belted Jonathan when I was feeding her with one boob and he wanted to play with the other one that night!" Felicia laughed, not wanting to admit to her mother-in-law that she and Jonathan had been "playing around" in some form or another ever since they had met when they had both been fourteen, having been boyfriend and girlfriend all throughout high school and college. To be precise, it was the Space Fighters' Training School for Jonathan; the members of G-Force had gone to the similar Federation Special Forces Academy on the same campus and in those days, they had even taken a few upper-level classes with the cocky older Regular EDF Midshipmen.

Nova laughed. "Derek's got a bit more experience at that sort of thing than Jonathan does. Remember what happened with all five of ours, dear?"

"I keep in my head everything about Alex, Ariel, Steve, Anya, Teresa, and our adopted Jonathan like a Russian novel," Derek said with a yawn. "Guys, like to go in to the other room and meet them?"

"Sure," said Princess as Jason scowled. "It'll be charming."

"Let's go," said Mark. Not far away, Princess noticed Nova coaxing both Felicia and Staci to drink some of her glass of water. They both did, and Staci lisped, "Thanks, Gramma," and kissed Nova before Nova led her by the hand back into the other room.

* * *

When they got in there, the first thing they noticed was a tallish fourteen-year old boy in grey sweat pajamas with dark, tousled brown hair yelling, "Okay, people, SHUT UP! Mom and Dad are coming, so you'd better SHUT UP!"

Beside him, a lovely fourteen-year old girl with honey-blond hair extending down to her waist and a long pink nightgown yelled, "Alex, let _me_ tell them to shut up!"

"That's not your job, Ariel!" yelled the boy, who, as Mark of G-Force noticed, looked like an image of a far younger Derek Wildstar. "It's my job!"

In the meantime, a boy in striped pajamas who wore round wire-rimmed glasses was being chased with a pillow and hit every now and then by a little demon of a girl with long, dark brown hair and a devilish expression. She wore a red and white Star Force-pattered sleep shirt with the arrow and markings in red. The two chasing each other looked to be about eleven or twelve. Not far away, a little girl with golden blond hair and a sea-green nightie sat with her legs curled under her, coloring in a coloring book, oblivious to the noise and insanity all around her. She looked to be about seven or eight.

Mark noticed Derek looking at Nova, who slowly and sadly shook her head. Derek took the center of the room and whistled loudly. Then, he yelled, "ALL of you, shut up! We have guests!"

"Guests?" said the dark-haired girl in mid-bop as she was engaged in bopping her brother in the head. "What's a guests?"

"What _are_ guests?" Nova corrected her in a snappy voice. "Anastasia, learn to use proper grammar for once!"

"She's been like this all night, Mom," said the blond fourteen-year old as she hugged her mother. "It's like she ate a whole box of Sugar Smacks, Mom."

"Ariel, you know she always acts like that when she's cranky," Nova said.

"I am _not_ cranky, _Mother_!" yelled Anya. "Do you see me holding a big metal crank in my hand? Huh! Tell me! HUH?"

"Show your mother some respect!" snapped Derek in a loud voice. "Apologize right now! What will people think?"

"Sorry, Mom," said Anya with a bow.

"Go sit in the corner for a while and reflect upon your actions," Nova said. "You're in a time-out."

"_Mother_," whined Anya.

"You just added ten minutes to that time-out," Nova said. "Twenty minutes time-out. Alex, make sure she stays there."

"Yes, Mom," said Alex as the Big Brother walked Anya to the corner and made her sit down facing the walls.

"Breep-boop, KIDS," said Keyop with amusement.

"You're still a kid," said Princess as she bopped Keyop.

"I'm a Science Ninja," said Keyop. "I could take out this whole bunch of kids with one arm tied behind my back! I am the Great Swallow!"

"Don't make me put _you_ in the other corner, Keyop" Nova said dryly.

Keyop gave Nova and Princess a dirty look and he sat down. "Moms," he muttered.

Nova and Derek talked for a few minutes while Princess sat down on the floor beside Mark of G-Force, watching as the kids slowly began to calm down.

"I wonder what it's like to grow up in a big, close family?" said Princess.

"I don't know," replied Mark. "The only memories I have of my parents…well…I was an only child."

"Oh," Princess said. "I think I may have been, too. My memories are not all that clear before the orphanage…"

"Yeah," said Keyop.

* * *

**III. STORIES…**

**Hotel Orion Embassy**

**September 7, 2221**

**0430 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

"Did I hear the word 'orphanage?' asked Derek Wildstar as he sat down while Nova went off to the side to talk with little Teresa.

"You did," said Mark. "We were all orphans at some point. My father vanished…and I believe my mother died."

"My mother died of grief after the Second Cometine war," said Princess. "I never knew my father."

"I had my parents up until I was around fourteen," Derek said. "Maybe thirteen. They were killed in the war with the Gamilons."

"I'm so sorry," said Princess as she looked with compassion at the Admiral.

Derek lowered his eyes. "All I had left was my brother Alex, in the military. Then, he was assumed dead in the Battle of Pluto back in 2199. Alex supposedly died defending Captain Avatar's flagship. Then, except for my friend Mark Venture, I was alone in the world. Until I met Nova."

"How did you meet her?" asked Princess, who looked sidelong at the beautiful woman in the nightdress.

"Mark Venture and I found the body of Queen Starsha's sister Astra on Mars," Derek said. "She died bringing us the plans for the wave motion engine, which was Earth's first faster-than-light time warp drive, and a message inviting us to come to Iscandar for the Cosmo-DNA machine to remove the radioactive pollution that the Gamilons had covered Earth with. Then, the Gamilons were our enemy, led by Leader Desslok, who had schemes more maniacal than Zoltar's worst. The dead Princess Astra was a beautiful young woman with long sort of honey-blonde hair, long eyelashes, slender build like a classical elf or an angel, beautiful purple gown. Mark and I never thought we would see a woman as beautiful as that again. Until we got home and ended up in the Medical Wing of the underground EDF base near the Capital beneath Great Island. There, we saw a woman in a yellow nurse's smock and boots, who, except for somewhat shorter hair, could have been the dead Astra brought back to life. That was Nova. Nova Forrester then, to be exact. She came with us on the first mission to Iscandar as our Living Group Leader, radar officer, and head nurse."

"Sort of what I'm trained in," said Princess.

"Yes," continued Derek as Mark looked on. "She was twenty-one then, just out of college; she went to a civilian college and took ROTC. On the mission to Iscandar, she became friends with Venture and I; she eventually came to know all about how my brother Alex had gone missing, presumed dead. She started becoming a little closer to me when she found out I had no family left; I was sort of too stupid to notice it at the time. But, Nova and I went through a lot of adventures and battles together…and we were always there for each other."

"But weren't there rules about getting too close to a fellow officer?" said Mark as Princess gave him a dirty look that he didn't notice…but Derek did.

"It happened so slowly that we couldn't do much about it. Besides, we didn't know if the human race was going to be alive when we got back. Some couples met on the _Argo_…some got engaged. Admiral Avatar, our Captain, then, allowed it, so long as it didn't interfere with duty. Then, when we were almost at Iscandar, Nova and I talked, and I took this picture of her. I still have it," Derek said as he got out a picture from his wallet and slowly unfolded it; it was an instant-print picture from a stereo camera, now rather beaten up.

Mark and Princess looked at the picture. It showed a much younger Wildstar with a startled look on his face; it looked like one of his hands had just been slapped by a saucy-looking but very cute younger version of Nova in a yellow and black catsuit-like uniform who didn't look that much unlike the current-day woman, as Princess noticed with some envy. There was a mixed look of annoyance and playful mischief in the woman's eyes.

"Why did she slap you?" said Mark.

"I was trying to give her a hug," Derek said.

"He was trying to get too _frisky_," Nova rejoined. "Then I told him it was our first date and he could have a record of what had happened. We had to go back on duty soon afterwards, but I let it stand. Our second date was on Iscandar. There, we lay in the grass and watched the clouds for what seemed like hours. We were officially dating by the time we got back to Earth…when I nearly gave my life for him and the crew."

"How did that happen, ma'am?" Princess asked.

"Desslok and the Gamilons attacked the ship and filled it with a radioactive knockout gas," Nova said. "It would have been lethal eventually. I knew that. I went to the newly-assembled Cosmo-DNA and turned it on, getting a good whiff of gas right before I did. I went into a deep coma afterwards and almost died. I woke up in a nightdress in Derek's arms hours later. He was carrying me around in utter grief, thinking that I had died…"

"Like you with the Fierce Flowers," said Mark as he patted Princess' hand.

"Mark," said Princess. They stared at each other for a moment as Nova sat down on the bed next to little Teresa. The little girl smiled and crawled into her mother's lap, followed by little Staci. Derek sat on the bed behind his lovely wife and put an arm around her as the other children came around (even Anya was allowed out of the corner with no comment) while Nova began with, "In honor of one of our guests, I'd like to tell you a story about another Princess. She was named Anastasia," Nova said.

"Is this the same lady I was named after?" said Anya.

"Yes, dear," said Nova as Anya sat down on the floor next to her brother Steve, between Alex and Ariel. Jason, Mark, and Princess sat down with Tiny and Keyop. Jason was snarling, but not even he wanted to quite break the spell Nova was creating in her soft, low voice as she continued with, "Once upon a time, long ago, in the land of Russia, there was a Tsar named Nicholas. The Tsar was what they called the King of Russia in those days. The Tsar had several children who were Princesses, and one sick little Prince named Alexei. One of the Princesses was named Anastasia. Now, Russia had just lost a great war, and there was a revolution in which the Tsar was overthrown, because of the war and because many people thought the Tsar was an oppressive, bad ruler. There were good, idealistic men in the Revolution and there were also evil men who wanted vengeance," Nova said, continuing with her tale as she talked a little about Alexei's illness and the mad _starets_ Grigori Rasputin, sugar-coating some, but not all of the story.

Nova believed in being a gentle realist about life…after all, she had been pregnant with little Teresa a few years ago in front of the four older children, and she had not exactly hidden where babies had come from. It had been a little hard to, since she had given bravely birth to Teresa at home on a beautiful warm June morning seven years ago in her own bed, with the children having witnessed some of the process, and all of them meeting their new baby sister as she lay on her mother's bare breast afterwards as Nova lay there naked nursing her child.

Mark wasn't quite able to believe this. Nova had an art with the word so that she could take a tale of woe and tragedy and weave it into a children's fairy tale. Still, he noticed that all of the children were enraptured, and little Staci and Teresa were getting sleepy.

He felt a pang of heartbreak and jealousy, thinking, _How many years was it since my mother told me a bedtime story like that? Were my parents once as close as Derek and Nova are? They look like they are so much in love with each other. My mother died. My father disappeared. Where is he?_

Mark did not even notice the appearance of a red-clad figure in the doorway who stood there with his teeth gritted. The figure was Colonel Cronus. He shook his head sadly, thinking, _Mark, I see what is happening. They called me here to speak with you and with the Admiral, but I find the Admiral here playing devoted father and husband instead, fiddling while Rome burns. Or is it fiddling? I wish I could have been as devoted with you, Mark. I wish… _Then, Cronus sighed as he thought, _I wish you could have stayed with your true parents...not just the surrogate mother...my lost wife, who gave birth to you, but your true mother, and father, who conceived you and gave you life...your true parents...who do not even themselves know the truth..._

Derek kissed Nova gently while she continued her story with these words, "…Sadly, the evil men, led by a revolutionary man named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, got hold of the Tsar and his family. They took them all prisoner, and eventually, they were taken to a part of old Russia called Yekaterinburg, where they gave orders for them to be killed. They were, but their bodies were not found for many years after that. However, some people thought that Princess Anastasia somehow escaped her captors. After the Revolution, quite a few young women appeared, claiming to be Anastasia. One of these young women seemed so much like her that some thought she really was the lost Princess."

"Was she, Mother?" said Anya through sleepy eyes. "Or are you just making this one up?"

"People thought she was," Nova said. "Maybe she fooled herself into thinking she was. The Tsar and his children died in the early 20th Century. It was not found that the real Anastasia was with them until early in the 21st Century. But some of the members of the Tsar's family, cousins, and so forth, did survive. Russia had a Tsar again in the middle of the 21st Century, more of a constitutional monarch than the original Tsars had been, and she also had a Tsarina; a female Tsar. She was named Anastasia the First, in memory of the lost Princess. So, after a fashion, she _did _come back again. But she lived on, because people remembered her. If we remember Jonathan hard enough, I think he'll really live on, and that the power of our wishes will keep him safe…even in Zoltar's hands."

"Looks like two little Princesses are asleep," Derek said as he tousled his youngest daughter's hair….just the way he had when Teresa had been a baby, nursing at her mother's breast.

Nova kissed little Staci and Teresa and said, "Anyone want to help me tuck them in?"

"I'll do it," said Ariel as she picked up her little sister. Alex picked up little Staci. Nova got up, followed by Derek, and she watched as the two of them were tucked into bed side by side by the oldest of the children and then by Nova and Derek. Nova said, "Staci will sleep a bit longer. I gave her and her mother something in their drink to help them sleep because they were so upset."

"So what happens after this charming little scene?" said Jason as Keyop yawned beside him.

"We'll talk later in the morning," yawned Derek. "Let's make arrangements to meet at 1130 Hours."

"Sounds wonderful," Nova said in a sleepy voice as Anya yawned. Anya went obediently to bed beside Ariel, and Alex went into bed holding his brother Steve.

"I think a real Princess needs to be carried to bed," Derek said as Nova yawned.

"She does," Nova said. "This Princess Bride MD is getting pretty sleepy herself. Derek?"

Nova came to Derek's arms. He kissed her and then picked her up and tenderly carried her to the inner bedroom of the suite in his arms. The door quietly closed, and the lovers were not seen again until the next morning.

"Well, what does this mean?" Mark said as Princess looked at him.

"It means a lot," said Colonel Cronus as he turned around and made himself known.

"Sir?" said Mark. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Chief Anderson sent me. A lot has been going on on Riga. Shall I tell you?"

"How's about letting us get some sleep?" snarled Jason as Keyop kicked off his shoes and curled up on a spare cot in the suite. "We're beat. The Story Princess there almost lulled _me_ to sleep. The lady's got a good method for controlling these little turds; you've gotta grant her that."

"Yeah," said Tiny. "I'm seeing three of you guys right now."

"Maybe it's because you've been hitting the Scotch, Tiny?" snapped Jason with a leer as he played with a feather shuriken. "Maybe the lady gave those kids Vodka, too. I wouldn't put it past her. She can't be as sweet innocent and goody-goody-damn two-shoes as she looks. Get your kids drunk. That's a good one! And how'd she _get_ five kids in the first place? Sure wasn't Immaculate Conception!"

"Be quiet or you'll wake them up," said Princess.

"This can't wait," said Cronus. "I would also demand Wildstar, but, unfortunately, I can't order an Admiral and a Captain around. With those two, rank hath its privileges. Let the Swallow sleep; he's already out cold."

"Well, let's get to it," said Mark.

"Outside," growled Cronus. "This way…"

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED… **


	4. Chapter 4

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

**CHAPTER FOUR: ANCIENT HISTORY**

**I. OLD SCORES AND NEW SCORES**

**Hotel Orion Embassy**

**September 7, 2221**

**0512 Hours: Local Time**

Cronus sat back in a chair and looked at the gathered members of G-Force and said, "Riga has a very deep link to this whole business. It's amazing what I found out there about Spectra."

"Go on," said Mark. "I heard something about how Spectra first began to fight Earth and the Federation."

"Which version?" said Cronus cynically. "The version you learned in the Academy, or the version that really happened?"

Mark and Princess looked at each other while Jason said, "It figures that the official history is full of lies and bullshit. Tell us what really happened, Colonel?"

"To begin with, back about…oh…fourteen years ago…Spectra came close to being sucked into the wars that dominated this galaxy around that time. Specificially, Zoltar's House learned that it was estimated that the Comet Empire might have them on a shortlist to be attacked next after they finished their second go-around with Earth. So, it is my understanding that a major buildup of their military began before Zoltar took power, at the instigation of the Great Spirit, as they call him. Or it."

"We saw it once or twice when we attacked one of their bases on Earth and one on Spectra. What is that thing, anyway?" said Princess.

"No one knows for sure," said Cronus. "Some say it's an artificial computer-based form of life…others think it is some kind of cyborg…and still others think it _is_ literally some kind of spirit entity caught in a machine. The only person I think knows for sure is Zoltar. I don't think you want to ask him, do you?"

"No," said Jason.

"Any idea how it got there to Spectra?" Mark said. "Or was it always there?"

"This is the best I've been able to figure out," Cronus said. "Spectra didn't always have high technology. In fact, just about a hundred and fifty years ago, they were no more advanced than Earth of about the mid-twenty-first century."

"Around the Unification Wars," said Mark. "And?"

"Spectra's history is murked in shadows, lies and illusions. Yet, they indisputably say that…one day…the Great Spirit just appeared on Spectra and _gave_ them "wisdom"" said Cronus. "The history also says he was once on Earth…"

"Earth?" said Mark as he raised his eyebrows. "When?"

"Well," said Cronus. "In the days of the Unification Wars, contrary to the official line given by the Government, Earth's first contact with aliens was not when Gamilon slowly began its war in the shadows in the middle of the 21st Century. In the 20th Century, there were contacts with aliens; a lot of them dealt with by way of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce; aka UNIT. Some British and American agencies dealt with aliens, as well as some Japanese agencies. One of them was the original form of ISO; the International Scientific Organization…"

"Yeah…the agency that supposedly guides us," said Jason. "How old are they?"

"They have origins going back to the 2050's. Around 2073….have you ever heard of an organization known as the Galactor Syndicate?"

Jason said, "Sounds sort of familiar. Mark?"

"Someone mentioned them once in an Academy lecture," said Mark.

"Did you remember it?" said Princess.

"Nah…I was half-asleep then," said Jason.

"Figures," said Princess with a pout as she turned to Mark. "Mark?"

"The Galactors were supposed to be some terrorist organization," said Mark. "One of many that arose in the 21st Century. Whatever became of them?"

"Another special team was fighting them, once upon a time. That team also found out that they were being guided by a machine being; an artificial form of life. They really covered that up, then. There were no artificial intelligence robots running around then, like in our time," said Cronus. "Guess what the being was called?"

"Was he like the Luminous One?" said Mark. "Or it?"

Cronus nodded. "The old histories say this Being was called Generalissimo X. It had a second in command, named Berg Katze. Katze killed himself in the last battle with this Galactor Syndicate. Or we think he did. But, we found some old pictures of him…or rather, a little bird that Anderson and I use to scour the historical records found these pictures. Tell me if you don't think this is familiar…almost eerie…"

Cronus opened up a portfolio and passed around a very old picture, preserved in plastic. "Great Caesar's Ghost….Princess….look at this!" Mark snapped.

"Zoltar," whispered Princess. "This is a picture of Zoltar!"

"Not exactly…the ears on the headpiece are shaped differently….and the insignia on his belt is just a little different," said Cronus…as a tap came at the door, and Cronus said, "Enter."

A moment later, they were all surprised when Chief James Byron Anderson came in. He said down and blandly said, "I take it Colonel Cronus has been telling you about our research?"

"He has," said Mark. "Why?"

"Well, we thought there was, maybe, more than one Zoltar.." said Anderson. "But, we recently got a DNA sample. It showed a very bizarre pattern, and it matched a sample, or number of samples, taken when Zoltar made one of his few known appearances on Earth itself….this one being in San Diego…over thirteen years ago. Right around the time we were first learning about Spectra," said Anderson as he looked hard at Cronus. Cronus nodded once and looked to Anderson. Chief Anderson then said, "We got samples thirteen years ago, when Zoltar, following the usual modus operandi we know him so well for now….when Zoltar appeared right in a military installation in San Diego and attacked two people. These samples taken from his victims also match up with something else…but, we are still working on that matter, so I cannot get into that now. Concerning Zoltar's two victims thirteen years ago, one of them was a man; a civilian contractor for a Earth Defense Forces project. Zoltar killed this man in a very brutal fashion, and he took his identity to gain the confidence of the person we think was his real target."

"Who was this person?" said Princess. "And how come we were never taught that in the Academy?"

"Because…this is classified on a need-to-know basis," said Anderson.

"What happened to his other target and who was he?" said Jason.

"_She_ was a woman," said Anderson. "Zoltar attacked her with chloroform and with his hands. He tried damn hard to kill her. But first, she was sexually assaulted. Correction; _raped,_" said Anderson slowly. "It would have been a lot worse; but Zoltar's intended victim was smaller than him….but she fought him unarmed like a Rabid Tigress until she was rescued; intially by another almost suicidally brave woman, who was very small compared to him…almost weak compared to him…it was like a ballet dancer fighting off an NFL linebacker."

"How did this other woman fight him off?" asked Princess.

"Luickily, the woman who rescured the rape victim was and still is an Expert Marksman, and she wounded Zoltar badly with the help of her friends. But, as for Zoltar and his victim, we got some DNA samples right off her body after the assault. And, off the body of the male victim. Zoltar raped him, too…"

Mark looked sick upon hearing this, and Keyop reverted to saying, "Breeep…booop…bad…"

Princess looked at Anderson. "Is the woman who was raped still alive?"

"All I can say is yes," said Anderson.

"Who is she?" said Princess. "I'd love to meet someone who could fight off Zoltar…unarmed…for that matter, I'd also love to meet the other woman who actually wounded him. Who are they?"

"That is classified," said Anderson. "Very, _very_ deeply classified. You'll note I didn't even tell you if the first woman involved was a civilian or a member of the military. You do not need to know that. I won't tell you who she is unless we ever get orders to do so. But, yes, she is still very much alive, along with the second woman I spoke of. And the second woman still aids ISO every now and then when it does not conflict with her other military duties. Although on a very hidden and undercover basis."

"I'll find out who she is," said Jason. "I'll find out who they both are!"

"You will _not_," said Anderson angrily.

"Why?" said Jason.

"It would violate the women's s privacy!" snapped Anderson. "What other reason would you want to know this, Jason? Other than morbid curiosity…"

"Hey!" said Jason. "I have a good reason."

"What?" demanded Princess, whose teeth were gritting at this.

"I wanna ask the lady who fought Zoltar off unarmed to go out with me. I like people who can give back when I get rough…might have a good time in bed with this one…" sneered Jason.

Princess got up, twisted her lip, sneered at Jason and slapped him across the face. Then, sobbing away, she ran out of the room.

"Princess!" called Mark as he got up to follow her. He then turned to Jason and said, "You and I are settling this later…_asshole_," he whispered so that only Jason could hear.

"Let her go," hissed Cronus as he grabbed Mark's arm "She has a good reason for getting like that…"

"Why?" said Mark. "I'm worried…"

"Mark, that's also classified…"

Princess was crying like the world had just ended when she ran down the corridor, stopped at another hotel room door, and began to bang on it…hard.

A muffled man's voice from inside said, "Who _is_ it? We're tryin' to sleep!"

"It's Priincess!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Tell her I have to spar! I need to meet her in the gym! NOW! I am so angry with Zoltar right now, that…"

A few long minutes passed with no answer. Finaly, the door opened, and Nova Wildstar came out, clad in grey sweats with flip-flops on her feet. She was carrying two large, heavy bags.

"In this bag is my equipment," Nova said without preamble. "I have a spare _gi_ and a _boken_ in this bag for you. Once Anderson talked to me the other day and told me what happened, I guessed you'd want to spar at some point. I know everything about what happened to you in that snake mecha that showed up about two months ago…_everything_," Nova said as she paused and looked Princess in the eye with a stern concern in her dark eyes. "You can confide in me…I know about…this sort of thing…" Nova said as she put a hand on Princess' shoulder.

"How would you know about this…ma'am?" Princess said as they walked down towards the hotel gym. "How would you know what it was like to be tied down to a bed, stripped of your Birdstyle, stripped of everything, stripped naked before Zoltar, and then raped? Do you know dirty I still feel? Do you know I can't look Mark in the eye any more like I used to?" Princess said. "Do you know that I can't cry in front of the other members of the team? That I'm araid they'll think I'm weak? Do you know I haven't even been able to bring myself to talk to Mark yet?"

Nova just walked along dolefully and nodded. "I know, Princess. I know.: Nova stopped talking as they went into an elevator and went down. When they got off, in silence, they walked into the ladies' locker room, and Nova plopped down her bag near a locker and began to undress. Princess looked on as Nova pulled off her reading glasses and then pulled off her sweatshirt, revealing a remarkably trim and well-toned upper body clad in a lace bra. "Pardon the underclothes…I was sleeping by my husband when you woke us up. I told Derek that you now have access to me at any time ever since…what happened in the snake mecha reached my ears." Nova kicked off her sandals and pulled her pants down roughly, revealing a lower body clad in only a very small pair of lace panties. Then, she opened a bag and clothed her trim legs and lower body in a karate _gi_ in white, and she put on a _gi_ top in white, with collar and belt in the fabled black. "I had to train very hard to earn this," Nova said philosophically. "And I understand what you went through on that snake mecha. For a very good reason…Now, Princess, start getting changed…"

Priincess nodded, and took off her shoes, and then undid her striped bellbottoms and slid them down. Then, she took off her number "3" sweatshirt, revealing a trim body clad in only a pair of sports panties and a white sports bra. She rapidly clothed herself in her martial arts gi (and she also held a black belt) and said, "How would you know what it's like to be raped, ma'am? How dirty it feels? How..?"

Nova then sat down beside Princess and grabbed her hands. "Look at me, Traci," Nova said urgently, using her real name. "Look. Did Chief Anderson follow my recent request yet and brief you about two young women who fought Zoltar nearly to the death thirteen years ago? Did he?"

Princess nodded dully. "Yes. He didn't say who they were. He said their identity is classified. Jason…you know him by now….made some rude comments about how he would have wanted to sleep with a girl who fought Zoltar because he likes rough sex…he said he wanted to take her to bed…I slapped him across the face and ran…I thought that was sick, _Sick_!" cried Princess. "He can be so crude at times…and I took that as an insult, too. Especially because Jason does not know what happened to me yet. I don't know if I can ever tell my story…to anyone…"

Nova said, "I can tell you a story about someone. Maybe it'll help you. If I tell you a story, can you keep your lips sealed?"

Princess nodded. "Who is this about?"

Nova said, very slowly, and in a very low voice, "This is about the woman Zoltar raped thirteen years ago. I know how she felt. I know how dirty she felt when it was happening…how she tried and tried to fight, but could barely do so to keep her modesty, chastity, and honor intact. Virginity was no longer an issue for this woman. She was about to get married and had already been with her fiancee. I'm not at liberty to say who she was, but I was there when it happened. I helped rescue her. I was the woman who pumped two shots into Zoltar…by myself, as a matter of fact. But, that poor woman…her man found her trying to fight Zoltar, this…freak…this damned freak…who used a disguise to gain her confidence…and…when he found her, at the same time that I, along with two of the lady's best friends found her there, beaten, raped, and stripped entirely naked in a place that the woman felt was a sanctuary…her other home….it would feel the same way if you were raped in Center Neptune, Princess. When this woman's man and her friends rescued her, the woman wanted to die. She never thought her man would love her again…or would want her again…but…he…he took her to Sickbay…and he sat with her and held her hand throughout her physical. It was a physical, by the way, that I performed myself…since our ship's doctor was not on the _Argo_ that night. Then, when she wanted to be bathed and made clean by her fiancee…he took her on his lap like a baby and he washed her….naked body completely clean," Nova sobbed.

Princess was shocked at what she just heard. "Ma'am…?"

Nova said, "I'm sorry….I'm remembering two times in my life where I was in that woman's shoes….once, on our mission to Iscandar, when a group of mutineers who wanted to kidnap and force me to be their "Eve" on Iscandar took me by force to and island, and aid I was going to bear all of their children. They stripped me of my clothes by force to see if I was a virgin or not," Nova whispered. "Then, there was an earthquake where my wrist was broken, and my boyfriend, the future Admiral Wildstar, rescued me. The second time….I don't want to tallk about that, but….I know what it was like to be in this woman's place. And in your place. So…do I understand? Yes, Princess. I understand. I will talk with you at any time. But, you need to promise me something…"

"Yes?" Princess said.

Nova looked at her hard. "Before we spar…to get how we both feel about Zoltar out of our systems…promise me you will talk to Mark."

"I will," said Princess. "I will…"

At that, Nova got her boken and began to spar with Princess. The two women fought hard, and Nova purposely took a few blows and bruises as she let Princess take out her rage and aggression on her like a human punching bag. Only the fact that the Star Force veteran was strong and had good reflexes kept her from being seriously hurt in that session.

**LATER….**

Derek Wildstar awoke to the sound of the shower running and then going off. He found Nova wasn't there beside him. "Nova? Hey! Where'd you go?"

"Right here," she said tiredly as she came out of the bathroom wrapped in just a towel. Derek could see bruises on his wife's bare legs. "What happened to you?"

"I sparred with Traci…aka Princess," Nova said. "I know what she went through with Zoltar the other day, and I told her to open up to Mark. I told her about what happened to Diane Sandor those years ago without divulging her name. I also told her about Diamond Island and Sparks and his scurvy band and talked a little about Stovall in the hospital."

Derek held her and said, "You've had close calls and have been close to getting raped so often….promise me you'll sit this one out and let G-Force go on the front line. I never would have let you go with me earlier to fight him had I known about what had happened to Princess with that snake mecha two months ago. Now that I know, Nova, promise me you'll keep away from that Zoltar."

"I can't promise you that, and you know it," Nova replied as Derek kissed her and held her close on his lap as they sat on the bed. "I'm a doctor, but I'm still a warrior. Like you."

"Nova, that time we met Zoltar face to face on the _Argo_ thirteen years ago, he said he wanted to rape you, not Diane. He took her as sloppy seconds. I get the sense that you're the one in danger for some reason…I…"

"And that's why I have to be one of those who helps Princess and G-Force defeat that bastard and give him a new home; preferably a six-foot deep hole in a cemetry," Nova snapped. "Promise _me_ you'll back me up if we get involved again. Promise me you'll help me rescue our son from that maniac."

"Okay…I promise," sighed Derek. The two of them hugged and kissed again as Nova's towel began to slip open. He smiled at her and began to part the towel and tenderly touch his dear wife of nearly twenty years. Nova smiled back as she caressed his bare chest.

They fell onto the bed together, kissing like teenagers as their bodies pressed together.

For now, the mission and the briefings could wait.

As Derek Wildstar made love to Nova, Nova wished that Princess could find this sort of happiness someday with Mark. A love such as this…could soften the worst of memories….

**TO BE CONTINUED….**


	5. Chapter 5

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

_**Note: With this Chapter, the Rating of the Tale now goes up to "M" (Mature). The reason for this change is because a relationship that has long been smoldering here is about to kick into higher gear in the next few chapters. Plus, in a section near the end of this chapter, things get a little explicit and...strange (mostly concerning the hidden background of a character in this universe-and definitely explains why this is an AU tale, since it's fascinating but not Canon (and this writer knows it, and thanks Yuki Wildstar for helping to inspire this wicked twist to this tale...)**_

_**In this chapter; things definitely turn...weird. Hang on for a strange ride! **FREDDO_

**CHAPTER FIVE: EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW….**

* * *

**I. THE THOUGHTS OF A MAN ABOUT TO DIE… **

**Cockpit: Spectran Missile**

**Planet Riga**

**November 22, 2221**

**Unknown Time**

* * *

Time passed, but many things changed for G-Force.

Colonel Cronus of Riga, who had revealed himself to Mark "Anderson" of G-Force as his father, had just said farewell.

He was cruising the X-1 manned missile on Riga to attempt to stop the Van Allen Belt Hyper-Project of Spectra.

Zoltar's scheme was demented yet simple. Cause an explosion to damage the Van Allen belts of Riga, and then…open a wormhole and warp the shock waves through hyperspace to Earth, finishing the job of destroying that planet's Van Allen Belts. A simple scheme that would destroy two worlds at once…as the war between Spectra and Earth had escalated.

Cronus sat reciting his final thoughts into the Missile's flight recorder as it cruised through the Rigan Eastern Sea. His ruminations, found years later, after Riga's destruction a few weeks later, went like this:

_Mark….my Son…._

_This is being recited in the hopes that perhaps you will find this message._

_I finally told you the truth. Or most of it. I told you that I am your father. The father who had to abandon the name of Kenjiro Washio, and his wife, Tina, when you were four. Why?_

_Because Chief Anderson forced me to go underground._ _Because I had to discard my name; even my face, to infiltrate society here on Riga, which had become our most recent ally in the growing Alliance._

_Mark, if only I had had more time….I wish I could have told you the full truth of where you came from. _

_Because you would never, ever believe it._

_You were raised, Mark, by me, by Tina, who died of a broken heart soon after I left, by the authorities in the orphanage…and by…damn him, Anderson._

_Anderson. It all comes down to him and his secret schemes and projects._

_Anderson._

_Because of him, I had to leave you. Because of him, the mother who raised you died, and now lies as a pile of rotting bones in a nearly-forgotten grave in a Catholic cemetery in Northern California. Buried, of course, by Anderson._

_But, because of him, and because of the connivance of Earth Defense…you never knew your true parents. _

_The womb of Tina Washio nurtured you. She labored in her sweat and pain and nakedness to give birth to you._

_But, the womb of Tina Washio is not where you were conceived. You were implanted there; taken from your mother of conception in 2203, eight and a half months before you were born in January 2204, Mark. Taken because yours was a tubal pregnancy. Decades ago, you would have just died there, a theraputic abortion. Luckily, our science has surpassed the need, for the most part, for such barbaric operations, and you could simply have been moved down a few centimeters, and safely and easily re-implanted in the womb of the woman who should have borne you in the first place. The woman…._

_Anderson, damn you, you never even told me who she was. You said it would be 'inconvenient' and that this poor woman could not be ***allowed*** to be pregnant at that time due to a matter of 'grave interplantary security'_

_Your true mother never got to hold you or nurse you or change your diapers. Your true father never got to play with you. In fact, I am told that your mother was never even aware she was pregnant, and was never even told. She was told her brief hospital stay, and the brief recovery she was allowed, was for 'examination and treatment of a Fallopian cyst'. I am told she was deployed three weeks after the operation with her husband, happy (or as happy as someone on Earth Defense Deployment can be) and unaware that she was even carrying you. _

_Tina and I wanted a child. We had considered in-vito fertilization. Then, when you were in the hospital being evaluated, Anderson came to us with a bargain; would you become a surrogate mother for a baby already conceived and caught as a tubal pregnancy in the womb of an otherwise young, healthy woman who had to, for security reasons, give up her child as a donor? _

_We agreed to this bargain. We were never told who the father and mother were and never even saw them. She was on the surgical floor of Central Hospital; you, Tina, were in Maternity. _

_Tina saw your mother…your true mother, very briefly, right as she went under. She was not supposed to see her…she was on the other side of a divider and the view she got of her sleeping face was accidental. Tina told me that the sight of that haunting, pale face and that blond hair was one of the most bizarre memories of her life….Tina said that if she had truly seen who she thought she had seen…that you, Mark, had and would have had a very exceptional mother..and father.._

_I just found out myself…by stealing records. Stolen right from under Anderson's Goddamn stinking mustachioed nose! _

_Mark…if you had been allowed to stay with your true parents…._

…_you would have led a life, not of lower middle-class poverty, poverty in an orphanage, and a dorm room, but a life of upper-middle class privilege and relative safety as the son of two of the most famous people on Earth, high in the military echelons. You would have had your own room, a family, a pool, brothers and sisters, and occassional spurts of adventure and space travel on at least twelve other worlds and all over the Globe before you would have entered the Academy at a proper age…._

…_and your last name would be different…Mark….but it is so obvious, isn't it?_

_The name of your true father is written in your face. In your hair. In those eyebrows and your burning eyes. _

_I know whose son you truly are. And you must know, too…._

_I can say no more…I…have sent copies of my findings to your true parents, in secret, through Rigan channels that may take weeks to reach them….._

_Then, the truth will not die with me… _

* * *

**II. A DEEP SADNESS**

**ISO Special Missions Gunship _Phoenix_**

**Earth Orbit**

**April 23rd, 2222**

**0730 Hours: Utoland/West Coast NorthAM Time**

* * *

Mark, of G-Force, sat demoralized in his command chair in his white Birdstyle as he remembered all of the events of the past few months….as the war stretched on….especially those of the past few days.

….it had happened far too fast for him to comprehend.

He thought, _First, Jason rescued that girl named Tyna from the Robotoids. But she turned out to be a Spectran agent. We went to this mansion, and I don't know where that damn Zark gets his intelligence from, she ended up nice and dead in there….but that was not the worst of it….Then, the last mission? That amusement park. Princess, you meant well, but when you lost your shoe…that set in motion more events, and…._

Mark sat in thought as he lay back and said to himself. _And then, there was what happened to Cronus. Or, should I say…my father?_

Tears ran down his cheeks as he considered his father's fate.

Very, very bitter tears.

Then, Zark's voice chimed in. "Commander! Mark! Anderson wants a report!"

"7-Zark-7, go to HELL!" snapped Mark.

"Are you sad about your friend Colonel Cronus?" Zark said in a voice that sounded very patronizing.

"He was more than my friend, you fucking pile of bolts! He was my FATHER!" Mark snapped.

"I will have to report this to Chief Anderson," said Zark as the rest of the Team looked at Mark, utterly aghast.

"Go report whatever the hell you want!" yelled Mark as he snapped off the comm circuit at his end and glared at Jason and Princess.

"I don't think this is a good time to ask Princess if she wrote her name in her shoe, yet," said Keyop. "Remember yesterday? Her running away from Jill's Place?"

"No, it's not!" Princess snapped.

"What do you mean it's not?" said Tiny. "We got those other sixteen year old girls out of that bogus Beauty Center that ended up being a mammoth…"

Keyop grinned evilly, winked at Princess and he purposely stuttered as he said, "Breep, boop…_Mammoth poop_!"

Mark sat snarling, until he remembered, _Oh, yeah, Princess….we made up a little gift for you. I'll give it back to you when we get back to Center Neptune._

Tiny got a stupid look on his face, and he put some music on the _Phoenix_'_s _sound system; namely, "_The Theme From the Monkees_" He turned up the sound system as the lyrics, "_Here We Come…walkin' down the street….get the funniest looks from…everyone we meet…_" A drum roll came, but Mark shut off the sound system and said, "Tiny, shove it up your ass!"

"What do ya mean shove it up my ass?" said Tiny.

"Your stupid music!" yelled Mark.

"Hey, Big Ten," said Jason. "Mark, get off his case!"

"So what?" yelled Mark. "My father's dead, we get into these asinine missions…."

"The war goes on," said Jason. "Oh, my horse, my horse, my Kingdom for a Super Bird Missile…"

"What's that?" said Tiny.

"It's shit!" yelled Jason. "Just like the shit in your head, Mark!"

"The shit in my head?" yelled Mark. "What about the shit in your head, Jason?"

"You two stop it!" yelled Princess as she got up and stood between them.

"Oh, let's land this thing at Center Neptune and go home," said Tiny. "I wanna space burger…"

* * *

_Our current location is off the coast of South America_, said an anonymous voice over the speakers of Center Neptune. _ETA off Utoland three days at our current course, heading, and speed…._

Princess lay in her room moping in her civvies with the number "3" on her T-shirt. She had kicked off her shoes, and had tried painting her toenails pink to see if it would boost her spirits.

It was not working.

If anything, Princess was more depressed than ever.

"Mark, why won't you open _up_ to me?" she said out loud. "You're full of your own rage over losing your father…sometimes you let me in a little…sometimes, only sometimes…"

She went to her own sound system and began to run through songs. Finally, she found another song by the ancient band The Monkees that seemed to fit her situation.

It was, "_I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone."_ She put on the song and turned it up, tapping her bedspread a little with her fingers and toes as she sang along with the song….

"Mark, this is how I feel right now…please get your head out of being the Eagle and come and comfort your damned Swan…." she whispered as she again began to sing,

When Princess remembered the song was about a high-class girl, she said,

_When I first met you girl you didn't have no shoes…_

_Now you're walkin' round like you're front page news…._

"Damn music!" Princess yelled, ejecting the data cartridge and throwing it under the bed. Then, she threw one of her new shoes under the bed, too.

Then, she threw herself on her bed and began to cry like crazy.

At the moment, the door whizzed open.

She yelled, "Would you leave me the hell ALONE? All I'm being reminded of is what an idiot I am for losing my shoe, and…"

"Hey, Princess," said Mark. He was smiling and holding something behind his back.

"Oh, Mark. Hi. Yeah. You're here to yell at me again?" she sniffed. "If you are…"

"Hey, Princess. Truce. Truce. _Truce_. I'm not here to yell at you at all."

"You're not?"

Mark shook his head as he sat on the bed. "In fact, I have a present for you. Now, granted, it was made up through the intervention of a woman we are all somewhat familiar with but….come here and sit on my lap."

Princess did so, even as she said, "Mark, are you sure this is not some sort of joke?"

"No, Princess. It's not."

"Then, what's in the box?"

"A new pair of shoes for you."

"A new pair of…shoes?"

Princess opened the box, and inside the box…there was a new pair of shoes, alll right. Namely, hot pink platform sandals.

"Do you like these? You'll need something a little different on with your civvies, with spring and summer coming up. The lady who had ISO make these up said they're the lastest style, Princess…"

"They're…cute," said Princess. "But do they turn into my Birdstyle boots when I transmute?"

"They sure do," grinned Mark. He slipped one on her foot. "And you see, they buckle on. Kind of hard to lose if they're buckled onto those cute feet…'

Mark buckled the one on her foot as Princess wiggled her toes up in the sandal. "It feels nice!"

"Allow me to do the right foot," said Mark. He put it on her, and tickled her foot right before puttting it on. "Mark!" she said with a blush.

Mark laughed at her reaction. "How's that fit? Go stand up in your shoes…"

Slightly disappointed, Princess stood up, walked around a little, and said, "The heel has some height to it, but they feel good. Who made these up?"

"A certain Doctor who sometimes works with ISO," said Mark. "When she showed up the other day, she had on a pair herself…"

Princess transmuted, discovering that her sandals turned nicely into the Swan's boots in G-3 mode. She transmuted back to civvies and plopped on the bed beside Mark.

"Can I thnk you for these, Commander?" she said.

"You sure can," he replied.

Princess smiled at Mark, and she put her arms around him.

A moment later, Mark was pleased and surprised to find that she was kissing him.

He was unsure of what to do, and it showed. "Uhh…what do I do?"

Princess said, "When a pretty girl kisses you, Mark…you're supposed to kiss back. Especially if you…like her?"

Mark smiled, took Princess in his arms...

…and he began to kiss back.

The kiss went on and on as Princess climbed into Mark's lap.

Before Mark knew what was happening, he felt Princess' hands going up his shirt….

Unsure of what she'd so, Mark reciprocated by putting his hands up her t-shirt…touching her navel as they kissed again, as she whispered, "There's something I've always wanted to tell you, Mark…"

"Yes, Princess?"

"I….I…" she said as his hands went way up her shirt, momentarily touching her breast.

To his delight, (and to Princess' delight and shock), he found she was not wearing a bra. To Princess' delight, his finger touch on her nipples felt good…very, very good…and….

"What was that you wanted to say, Princess?" Mark said again as they kissed.

"It's just…that I…:"

Then, an alarm went off in the base. "_Attention, all hands…attention, all hands_," said Zark's voice over the PA. "Object from orbit spotted re-entering over Chile….G-Force to the _Phoenix_, Commander, please respond with a Bird Scramble! Repeat, G-Force to the…"

"ohhhhh!" snapped Princess as she got her hands out of Mark's shirt.

"Yeah….Big Ten…likewise," snapped Mark. "On my mark…Transmute!"

Both members of G-Force changed from civvies to their Birdstyles in a moment. Then, Mark said, "Let's get to the Phoenix before…anyone…notices…"

"Right," said Princess, who thought, _Another_ _thirty minutes! Damn! Another thirty minutes and…who knows?_

_You can do a lot with the guy you love in thirty minutes…and I thought he was about to say it!_

* * *

**III. SECRETS REVEALED**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**The Wildstar Residence**

**April 24th, 2222**

**2245 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

* * *

Time passed on Earth.

The _Phoenix_ completed its mission, which was to attack two smaller Spectran Command Ships; familiar ugly vessels of the same bat-like design they had been using for years, before they completed a call for six Spectran Frigates.

Later, during a long strategy session with Anderson, Zark, and the whole team around noon on the 24th, Princess admitted they had picked up telemetry indicating that the Spectran Captain in one of the command ships had ben about to order the Frigates to attack the EDF spacecraft carrier Ark Royal, which had been on patrol in the area.

Anderson went all colors when he heard this. "This is an escalation of the war! Now they want to attack our capital ships?"

"Yes…just like they tried years ago, I understand," said Mark. "Those attacks ended around the time that Defense Minister Ainsley was killed. Was it true that Zoltar was actually chased to one of our allied planets?"

"That's classified," said Anderson. "But, yes, I can tell you that…years ago…we almost had Zoltar. The officers on the scene were about to get him with extreme prejudice."

"We were that close to killing the bastard?" said Jason.

Anderson nodded.

"Then what else about the past are you not telling us?" Princess said.

"There are…some things…but…you don't need to know them right now," said Anderson.

"Such as?" demanded Mark.

Anderson kept quiet at that.

* * *

In the meantime, in the Tokyo Megalopolis, it was now about somewhere between 10 PM and 11 PM local time.

At the Wildstar residence, Nova Wildstar told her husband, Admiral Derek Wildstar, to answer a doorbell that suddenly went off/

So, Admiral Wildstar stepped out into the thunderstorm to find a large package on their doorstep.

Nova stepped out in her house slippers and old slacks in the rain and cold to watch Derek. "What's that?" she cried.

"Some package…the writing on it is Rigan!"

"_Rigan_?" Nova said with raised eyebrows. Derek dragged in the package and slammed the door as lightning and thunder blew off outside.

"Are the kids asleep?" Derek snapped.

"Annie helped me tuck them in," Nova said, referring to their live-in nanny. "Derek, don't just go and open that….it should be sniffed first."

"Yeah, it could be a bomb…or gas…or anthrax…or the Rigan Croup," Derek said. He picked up the package and shook it. "It's addressed to us, in Standard English and Japanese above the alien writing. And I hear heavy stuff in this envelope. Feels like..folders?"

"Be right back," Nova said. She came back a moment later with a heavy suitcase that Derek had to help her with. They occassionally got bizarre packages, so the EDF had provided them with a portable explosive and bio-hazard scanner that would pick up most common terrorist bombs or germ or virus laden packages. They had actually gotten a few such nasty packages over the years from their enemies, with one direct from Zoltar a few weeks ago. The sniffer had picked up Trionite-5B, a common Spectran explosive. They had called the EDF Marine Bomb Squad at once for that one.

Derek helped Nova plug in and set up the portable scanner. Looking a little bizarre in their sweaters, old slacks, and house slippers, Derek held up the package while Nova scanned it with a wand from different angles and punched in some codes for the computer to analyze the package. "The computer says it's clean, Derek," Nova said.

"Do you trust that thing?" he said.

"Sort of," Nova said. "I'm doing an imaging scan on it now. Nothing in here but…files?"

"Files?" Derek said.

"Look at the image. These are someone's EDF Hospital charts," Nova said. "I think they're safe."

"I hope so," Derek said.

"Let me get a steak knife," Nova said as more thunder went off outside. Lightning flashed in the windows of the house as Nova ran into the kitchen for an ordinary steak knife. She cut open the tape holding the package and carefully opened it, hoping no powder or liquid that the scanner had not picked up would come out.

The package contained two large hospital charts, from 2203. "Derek, these were stolen from Central Hospital…the confidential file room."

"Confidential?" Derek said.

"Even I don't have the clearance to just waltz in there, Derek…" Nova said. "My God…look," she said. "One name on the chart….Ens. Tina Washio?"

Some thunder went off, followed by lightning. "The last name sounds familiar," Derek said.

"Mark…of G-Force…his original last name was Washio, Derek. That was before Chief Anderson adopted him and became his guardian back in late 2208."

"You said there were two charts…who's chart is the other…?"

Nova lifted out the other chart and turned it over, starting at the name."Derek, look! Look at that!"

Lightning went off. "Nova….I was a little blinded…whose…" Derek then looked. "YOURS?"

"Lt. Commander Nova Wildstar," Nova intoned softly. "This is my chart! They never let me see it when I was in the hospital that time…and I _wanted _to see it!"

"The date?" Derek said.

"March of 2203. Right after the Rikasha Incident," Nova said. "That time I was….in the hospital…"

"Yeah, with a Fallopian Cyst. That thing made you as sick as a dog for nearly a month…good thing you recovered…."

Nova opened her chart and began reading her symptoms. "Nothing exceptional here….I don't know why I was given this….or why there are classification seals all over…." Nova then stopped. She looked horrified as she read out loud, in a rage-filled whisper, "_Patient not to be told diagonsis based on CAT-R Scan taken on 3/29/03 under any circumstances….matter is to be classified per EDF reg 453-2 and ISO Directive 432-c….as signed off on by Stone, E.T.J., Major-General, Anderson, James B, PhD, PsyD, and officer's ultimate line Commanding Officer…._what, Derek? Did you…?"

"Know about what?" Derek snapped.

"Don't you dare deny it, Derek, what in the hell were you hiding from….?" Nova read on, horrified, not letting Derek look at the pages.

"Nova, what are you…?"

"You know damn well what you did, Derek!" Nova screamed. "_Ectopic Pregnancy…Lt. Commander Wildstar…Command decision….Resection and relocation op of fetus, not viable but 85% probable implant…not be done inside patient, planetary security….patient needed for Rikasha reconstruction on Cosmo-DNA….mission critical, patient not to be pregnant at this time…commmand decision, COMMAND DECISION! Removal operation to be done, patient and fetus to be considered donors for Beta Five Project! DONOR! MY CHILD WAS A DONOR?"_ Nova screamed in a voice that was hysterical.

"Nova, I…I had nothing to do with this…I.." Derek pleaded.

"FUCK YOU!" Nova yelled in the worst rage against him Derek had ever seen. "You were my Commander! They TOLD YOU! YOU CONSENTED!"

"Consented to what?" Derek said as he tried to hug her.

Nova railed off and slapped Derek violently against the face. "Don't you FUCKING touch me, you Nazi Eugenecist!" Nova screamed. "Did you marry me because you were looking at Alex, Ariel, Stephen, Anastsia, and Teresa as experiments _too_?"

"Nova, they NEVER TOLD ME EITHER!" Derek yelled, grabbing her by the wrists and shaking her like a rag doll.

"If you don't get your hands off of me, I swear I am going to stab you with that knife," Nova hissed as she pulled away from him and nearly punched him in the crotch as she picked up the knife and held a weapon on her husband for the first time ever. "I'll cut into _you_ like your butchers cut into me!"

"Nova, I hear the kids getting up…"

"Let them see it, because I am leaving you and taking them WITH me!" Nova snapped as she waved the knife. "I…"

"Nova!" Derek yelled in his strongest command voice. "I am giving you a direct order! CHILL FOR ONE MINUTE TO SAVE OUR MARRIAGE!"

"What marriage?" Nova insisted. "You used me as a brood mare for Stone and Anderson, you fucking…"

"Read this, you irrational goddamn BITCH!" Derek yelled as he thrust the next page of notes in front of her. "LOOK! It's in big print!"

Nova snarled. She put the knife in another hand, and then she read out loud, "_Potential birth father NOT TO BE TOLD. Matter is to be classified from both Commodore Wildstar and Lieutenant Commander Wildstar…by order of….ultimate line…commander of both officers….Singleton, H., General, Commanding General Earth Defense Forces," _Nova said as the kids and Annie came out. "_Repeat, Wildstar, D., Commodore, never to be told, potential of violence feared from Commodore Wildstar if…see psych profile, appended…._"

"Nova, I told you. They screwed me, too. Just like they screwed you," Derek said as lightning went off outside.

"O my God," she whispered. "I'm…I'm….I was so wrong, Derek!"

"Are we putting down the weapon, Captain?" Derek snapped.

"Aye, sir," Nova said as she gingerly put the knife down on the table. "My god, Derek…your face…did I do that?"

Derek looked at himself in the mirror. His face was bruised with a big ugly red handprint from Nova. "Yeah. You did it all right…"

"Please forgive me, Derek," Nova said in a very small voice as she stood with her head bowed. "Did you say..you wanted to save our….?"

Derek hugged Nova so hard he almost tackled her. "What the hell does it _look_ like?"

"I could never live without you, Derek!" Nova screamed. She threw her arms around him and sobbed.

Derek held her with tears running down his cheeks as he rocked her like a baby in his arms and asked, "Are your wrists all right?"

"Yeah," Nova said. "Is your face all right?"

"It hurts. We need ice," Derek said.

"Annie, stay there," Nova said as she looked at their nanny in her robe and nightgown. "We're all right. We're not…splitting up or anything…right?"

"Right," Derek said. "Unless you want to leave?"

"Oh, _forget_ I said that…" Nova sobbed. "As long as I'm not an irrational bitch…"

"You were…for maybe two minutes," Derek said.

Nova stopped and glared at him.

"But who could blame you?" Derek said with a smile. "You're…forgiven. I know it was a shock to you. It was a shock to me. Let me read that other file while you get that ice?"

"Good. I don't want to see mine again..until…"

"Until what?" Derek said. "Until we rip Anderson and Stone new assholes?"

"Yeah, and shove copies of that report up them," Nova laughed. "I'm not a bad proctologist…"

"Good. I think I'll need one…"

Alex then ran up. "Dad, are you and mom…?"

"We had a bad argument but we made up," Nova said as she worked on getting ice from the fridge, her usual cool, gentle demeanor reasserting itself. "Alex, help Annie get the younger kids to bed. We'll discuss this with them in the morning. But we're still a family…"

"What was that about a baby?" Alex said.

"You're short a brother," Derek said as Nova came back with some ice wrapped in a paper towel that she tenderly placed against his hurt cheek while kissing his forehead. "But I know where he is…"

"Where's my brother?" Alex said, confused. "And who's my brother?"

"Mark Anderson of G-Force," Derek said. "But we are his real parents, and he is the right age to have been born in 2204, three years before you, Alex. He's eighteen now. They lied to us when your mother was in the hospital years before you were born with a Tubal Pregnancy. They told us both it was a Fallopian Cyst….I believed them, and so did you, Nova. Then, they took the baby, but instead of reimplanting the fetus down lower in Nova's womb, a routine microsurgery op, they instead put the baby in Tina Washio, who had our child as hers as a surrogate mother. Nova, how could they lie about those diseases like that?"

"I was in pain in my side…both conditions present with the same symptoms initially," Nova said. "Luckily, we can tell the difference now with the scanners they have in our time, as opposed to the 21st Century, say," Nova added. "Doctor Sane was in on it, he lied to me pretty damn good," Nova said. "Excuse me a minute. We need to take a trip, Derek. Together, of course. Be right back."

"Where do you want to go?" Derek said.

"Center Neptune. What do you think? Please fly us there in the Jet Recon Boat we have outside. Let's get our Star Force uniforms on and go…"

"Nova, we're not confronting Anderson tonight?"

"No, but please order him there tomorrow morning. Tonight, Derek, we have to see Mark…and Princess. They have to know. Tonight. He needs his real parents. BOTH of them, Derek."

* * *

The Jet Recon Boat roared out of the Tokyo Megalopolis into the night a few minutes later. Nova and Derek had found out that Center Neptune was currently about 200 kilometers due west of Peru, so they made for South America on a westerly sub-orbital ballistic course.

About twenty-five minutes after depature from Tokyo, where it had been about 11 PM at night, the Wildstars began to approach the coast of Brazil, about 354 kilometers away from the Atlantic coast of that South American country. There, it was about 11 in the morning of that day.

"Fernando de Noronha," Nova said after reading a readout. "Climate: tropical. A month out of the rainy season. Archipelago of 21 islands. The southernmost one is uninhabited except as a wildlife sanctuary. Great! Derek, land us there for a bit…."

"Why?"

"We….uh…need to work some things out between us before we go see Mark," she said as she took her flight helmet off and shook her hair.

"I thought we _did_ work them out at home, Nova…."

"We couldn't work them out the way I wanted to in front of Annie and the kids, now, could we?" Nova said as she reached down and pulled off one of her yellow Star Force uniform boots. "Come on, Derek…get that helmet off," she said impishly….

"I need it on to get us cleared for a landing on Fenando de Noronha del Sud," Derek said as Nova unzipped his uniform shirt and began to caress his chest. "Uh….Nova…you have an interesting way of….working things…out…"

"Do you mind?" she purred as she unzipped her uniform, baring her breasts in the cockpit; easy, since she had gone naked under her uniform.

Derek called for and obtained landing clearance. When he was done, he worked on a landing while Nova got off her other boot. Then, with her bare feet up on the dashboard, she quickly unzipped her uniform and was in the nude even before they landed. Derek alternated the landing with touching various interesting parts of Nova's exposed anatomy as they came down in the jungle.

Nova worked the canopy release with her toes, and hot tropical air filled the cockpit as she crawled over her husband and relieved him of his clothes.

After some touching and loving foreplay of each other's initimate areas, they got out of the cockpit, and, holding hands, they walked a little through the steamy jungle to a spot by a lagoon.

There, they rolled around naked, hot, and unashamed in the foilage and ground cover, just as they had on their honeymoon, kissing and touching as Nova whispered, "I'm so sorry, Derek…about my being such a bitch before…"

"Nova, I understand why you did that….it was a shock..and…"

"I know you forgive me, but I want to make it up to you," she sobbed. "This time, make love to me and make it all go away…please…"

"Make what go away, Nova?"

"Our fight….my wanting to leave you…my wanting to cut you with a knife….your grabbing me and cursing me," she said as she got into his lap and began to play with his manhood…"

"Up a little, Nova…yeah..right there…now….up…"

Drek partly lifted Nova on top of him, and, after touching her to make sure she was ready (she was; her naked womanhood was as dewy and hot as the jungle), Derek eased himself into her, and they kissed as their dance began, weeping a little as they made love right in the jungle.

They would be married for many, many more decades, well into their old age, but they would, quite deliberately, never again bring up the night Nova had turned a knife on her husband. It would be a skeleton in the closet among them that they would remember but never again mention, even though they would mention and remember this hot, impulsive bit of passionate sex in the jungle.

Nova was careful to avoid the slap mark she had left on Derek's cheek as she hugged and caressed him, and he avoided touching her reddened wrists as he helped her make love to him while he thrusted and thrusted at her.

In the way of such things, as they made love, it hit them that it was only an hour ago that Nova had been threatening to leave Derek in her rage and pain. The sweetness between them made them feel better as their old love and trust returned, the pain between each other put far away, and the pain and loss they felt at having had a child taken from them redirected in their minds at Stone, Anderson, and even General Singleton. The couple would eventually have it out with all three of them, but it was more important, right now, to renew their love and their usual tight friendship and professional alliance.

The lovemaking, as in the way of sex after an argument, was hot, intense, and left them gasping after they climaxed and lay there in each other's arms a few minutes later, wiggling thieir toes in the hot, wet foilage.

"It feels sort of like we made up," Nova said in an understated voice as they sat laughing softly at each other.

"Yeah, it feels sort of like when Venture and I have a good fistfight. Did I ever tell you he came after me with a Bic pen once?"

"Yeah, and I'm sure you didn't do _this_ with him after you guys made up," Nova said as she winked at him and played with his hair.

:"You can be one tough cookie at times," Derek said. "Owww….my cheek…"

"Owww…my wrists," Nova said. They just laughed. Then they gently kissed the reddened spots and soon, Derek had Nova on her back with her legs up while he kissed his way up her thighs and said, "Can I have some dessert?"

Nova nodded as Derek played with her breasts and nipples. Her toes were soon curling with pleasure as Derek found her spot and made love to her with his mouth. When he was done, he tenderly examined his wife's private area for a bit. There, semi-buried in the small, neat tuft she kept at her bikini area, which Nova kept very presentable because she enjoyed sunbathing, beachcombing, swimming and skindiving either in garments that provided mininal coverage or in the nude when climate and propriety pernitted …semi-buried, Derek found a small mark on her there.

"Nova…is that?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes. It's the scar from the operation in 2203. It's…it's where they took Mark out of me," Nova said as fresh tears came. "It never kept me from giving birth the normal way three times later, in 2207 with Alex and Ariel, in 2209 with Steve and Anya, and in 2213 with little Teresa…Derek…how I wish they had let us keep him!" Nova screamed.

"It would have been your first time giving birth," Derek said.

"I probably would have wanted to kill you," Nova sobbed. "But it would have been worth it to be allowed to put him to my breast with you and the others watching and feed him. If we ever have another…"

"Nova, I'm…"

"We're not too old to have another child together," Nova countered. "It might be a bit more high-risk, but…we could still do it….we…" She just began to cry again. "Derek, I want to hold Mark and acknowledge him as my son…"

"So do I, Nova…" Derek said as he stroked his wife's hair. "So do…I…"

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED… **


	6. Chapter 6

**PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY**

**An AU Battle of the Planets/Star Blazers crossover**

**By Frederick P. Kopetz**

**Inspired by Yuki Wildstar and Gail (Fluffy) Kopetz.**

**CHAPTER SIX: A BETRAYAL EXPOSED….**

_I know...it's been forever since I updated this. Real life (work business, and two original novels I am working on) got in the way, and I was a little stuck; finally got un-stuck, produced this chapter, and am in the early pages of Ch. 7. Enjoy! (I hope?) - Freddo_

* * *

**I. A FIRE, UNQUENCHED **

**ISO Center Neptune**

**Off the Coast of Peru…**

**April 24, 2222**

**1900 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

The Ready Room of Center Neptune had a lot going on, but neither Mark nor Princess were terribly interested.

"Anybody want another space burger?" said Tiny, who was doing drum rolls behind the drum kit.

"I'll take one," said Keyop.

"The thing about his space burgers is that they're always half-baked," smirked Jason as he played some vicious Ping-Pong with Mark.

"Yeah? Like you?" said Mark.

"What brings this on?" snapped Jason.

"Your frackin' attitude, Jason," said Mark as he angrily hit a ball into Jason's stomach.

"Now wait a minute," he said as he looked at Princess, who was looking at Mark while sitting in a beanbag chair with her guitar in her hand and her shoes off. "Princess? Have I been an attitude problem lately?" said Jason.

"Damn straight," she said softly while looking at Mark. Mark slyly winked back and Keyop said, "Ooooo, sis…is there something going on that we don't KNOW about?"

"Can it," said Princess.

"Love to know what it is?" leered Jason.

"CAN IT!" Princess snapped in her most angry, no-nonsense tone of voice.

"I think we need to get out of here for a while," said Mark. "Princess, please unplug the guitar. You and I need to have a talk about discipline!"

"Discipline?" snapped Princess as she caught a sly look in his dark blue eyes.

"Jason, go check out the _Phoenix_," said Mark.

"Whaaaaaa?" said Jason.

"Your G-2 vehicle was off the stick in the last battle we fought. I don't know if it's a fault with the vehicle when it undocked from the _Phoenix_, or you, but you were so damn sloppy earlier today that…and Princess was almost as bad as you! She, I can and will have a talk with. You…we'll talk after you check out every damn thing possible in that vehicle and report back to me. Got that?"

Jason glared at Mark, hard. Then, he finally said, "Aye-aye…Commander!" Then, he stormed off.

Mark then took Princess by the hand and said, "Come off with me…don't question it…we are having a private talk…just pick up your shoes."

Confused, and a little mad, Princess picked up her sandals, and was about to follow Mark when Anderson appeared in the doorway.

"Chief!" he said. "What is going on?"

Anderson looked apprehensive as he said, "Mark, what are you about to do?"

"Have a talk with Princess about discipline. Why do you ask?"

Anderson shifted uncomfortably. "All right. I guess that's okay. Our visitors will not be here for another two hours."

"Visitors?" said Princess.

Anderson nodded. "Admiral Derek Wildstar, Special Star Force Ops. Captain Nova Wildstar MD. They say they have something that is very urgent that they need to discuss with both of you."

"What is it?" said Mark.

"Classified, for now," said Anderson. He looked at them and ushered them into a passage. "For the first time ever, they pulled Directive Number 66 on me."

"Directive Number 66? What's that?" said Princess.

"A point of inter-organizational law," said Mark as his face went white. "Under Directive 66, we are actually officers of the Earth Defense Forces on loan to ISO and Galaxy-Alliance Security. That can be rescinded at any time, or altered, by a flag officer of Earth Defense upon 'a significant security threat' It just so happens that Admiral Wildstar is actually in charge of the First Star Force…"

"…and all Earth Defense Special Forces," said Anderson. "Technically, he is at the top of your chain of command. But, he has never invoked this authority, or even a shred of it, Until now."

"Did he say what this is about?" said Princess.

Anderson shook his head. "No. But when I spoke to him by radio…he was barely even polite to me. As if the man is extremely angry about something. He told me….something about your basic commissioning paperwork has to be changed, and that you are to be the first to know of it…along with Princess. Doctor Wildstar said Princess has to be a part of this…"

Mark and Princess looked at each other, puzzled. Anderson put a hand on Mark's shoulder. Mark saw it was shaking. Anderson said, "The Admiral and the Doctor will be here at 2100 on the dot. They are flying in and using a submersible of their own to dock with Center Neptune. Go and discuss this matter of discipline with Princess, Mark. Don't think I am usurping your perogatives as Commander of G-Force. But, meet them in Conference Room Two off Sickbay Four at 2100. They said they have a lot to discuss. With both of you."

"Will you be there, sir?"

Anderson shook his head. "Admiral Wildstar's invocation of Directive Number 66 for this matter actually takes me out of the loop on this issue. Whatever this is…this is between you, Nova, Princess…and him. On that note…I leave you…and…wish you luck."

Anderson then turned away and left.

"What is he talking about?" said Princess.

"No idea, here. I'm just as much in the dark as you are, Princess."

* * *

The two teenagers gravitated to Mark's room a few minutes later. Princess looked around; always struck on how austere Mark kept his room. Everything was in place; manuals, directives in binders, flight logs, mission notes. Standard-issue blanket; hospital corners, lockers in place.

The only thing that had any sort of humanity to it was a picture frame. Inside it were two pictures; one of Colonel Cronus, and one of him as a toddler with his ailing mother, Tina.

"Not much of a life, is it?" said Mark.

Princess shook her head. "Mark, that matter of discipline you wanted to discuss?"

He looked down at the deck. "Actually, not much, except to be sure that you're on the stick the next time we fight…because I don't want you getting hurt. The rest was an excuse to get you away from the others."

"An excuse?" said Princess, as she blushed. Mark moved closer to her on the bed and put an arm around her, playing with her dark hair with its unusual tinge of green deep in its raven color.

"We…if…you don't mind…we…we…have some unfinished business from the other day. But…I want to ask you something?"

"Yes, Mark?"

"Please be honest with me…"

"I'll…try…"

"That day, on the Snake Mecha…did Zoltar…?"

Princess' eyes filled with tears, sudden, hot, painful tears as she said. "He did, Mark. I need to confess that to you. He…his men….stripped me totally naked. Then, I was…strapped down to a table," she said with a sob.

"And then?" Mark said as he tenderly looked into her eyes.

"He raped me," said Princess with pain in her eyes. "He took from me what I was saving for the man I want to marry, Mark. He…took…from…me…what I was saving…for…you! Because I…."

Mark looked thunderstruck. "So…we're more than friends?"

"What do you think?" cried Princess. "We've been together so long…I…I..I love you!"

Mark held Princess close, and he said, "I…I love you…too…"

Then, Princess climbed into his lap and wept as she fell back on the bed and kissed Mark.

"I…I..I…"

"Princess…what do you want to do?" said Mark.

"Isn't it obvious? I smell like Zoltar in my mind! I remember his feel on me…his hands on my breasts, both clothed, and nude…and his hands on me there," she said as she forced Mark to touch her clothed center. "I don't want to smell like him anymore! I want to smell like you…and…"

"You're saying you…"

Princess nodded as she sat up and pulled her G-3 shirt off. Mark was thunderstruck at the sight of her breasts. She was already barefoot, so the jeans easily came off next.

Then, she pulled down her panties, and let them fall around her painted toenails. Then, in the nude, she fell on top of Mark, kissing him hard as she pulled his shirt off….and then, she smiled as he cooperated and kicked off his loafers, worn without socks.

Princess finally pulled down Mark's pants and underwear as she made him stand up.

Smiling, she then lay back on the bed and sighed as Mark played with her breasts with one hand and pleasured her fancy with the other. She reached up, grasped his manhood, and began to touch him, tease him, and then, Mark's dreams and fantasies began to be fulfilled as Princess pleasured his nakedness without an ounce of shame, crying as she did so, and then crying as Mark took her and held her close as she began to make love to a man for the first time.

"Princess…is this making you unhappy?" asked Mark.

"Heavens above, NO!" said Princess as she cried all the harder and held Mark. "I….I…need you right now…I…I…really need you…I…"

"I need you…too…" Mark said. "Princess…I don't need to be a Commander for a while…I need you to hold me…I…"

"You what?" said Princess as she curled her legs around him, closer to climax then before. Oh, she knew what it felt like.

Zoltar had forced her to experience it. Then, he had slapped her across the face and called her rude, vicious things.

"I need to be comforted too!" said Mark as he began to sob. "I just lost my father!"

"And I…I….I lost…."

"Don't say it, Princess…because as far as I am concerned, you are mine, and you are as pure as a Swan's Feathers!"

"Mark! I love you!" Princess said as they kissed, embraced, gasped…and then, they cried out together as they both hit climax at once.

Then, when they plunged off the cliff of pleasure, they lay there, holding one another, crying, petting each other, saying sweet, kind things.

"I'll never take you for granted again, Princess," said Mark.

"Nor will I take you for granted, my…my Mark," Princess said back to him.

And, spent, Princess held Mark as they cuddled, and he fell asleep….

* * *

_A dream came again to Mark._

_It was a strange dream, a haunting one._

_Somewhere deep in his mind, his mind retained a memory of his mother Tina holding him as Kenshiro Washio, his father, said, "I have to leave you and Mark, Tina. Probably for a very long time…"_

_"Why?" said Tina. "Ken, you have a boy here. You have our marriage! You have…"_

_"I have to go," he said. "I have to go out into space as an Operative. Give up my name….give up who I am….I have to investigate something found in the breakup up the Rikashan Empire."_

_"When do you have to leave us?" sobbed Tina._

_"Now," said Ken. "Maybe we will meet again…some day. Take care of Mark. You know how he came to us…?"_

_"I remember so well…he was…a miracle child…"_

_"Does he know?" said Ken portentously._

_"Know? How can a child know such things…?"_

_"Know such things…" said his mother's voice again…._

_"Know such things…."_

_"Know such things…."_

_Then, there came a bleak day._

_The rain, the wind._

_Mark shivered as a nun tried to hold him as he looked on and wept at the dark bronze casket holding his mother's body._

_Rain was pattering on it, and on the flowers on the casket….as the nun said, "God took your mother, Mark…"_

_"Where did He take her? And why?" Mark wept…."Why is she in that box? Why?"_

_Lightning hit, and there was more rain._

_In the way of dreams, a month went very quickly. The sun came out, and Mark saw Anderson sitting on the grass near the grave (which was on a hill) as a kind-looking young woman sat in the grass nearby, petting his mother's bedraggled-looking cat Spunky as two tiny kittens played near her in the grass._

_"Spunky wasn't sick, then?" said Mark._

_"No, she was just getting ready to have kittens," said the kindly young woman. Mark remembered she was simply dressed; pink sweater; green, very light sundress, bare feet._

_"Ma'am, I know that it's crazy that I asked you to stop here to help her give birth a month ago…" Anderson said, barely able at times to keep from spilling everything every time he saw Nova Wildstar together with….Mark…._

_…her true, intended firstborn son._

_Nova held Mark by the hand and said (even though Mark did not remember this well in his conscious mind; somehow, he never associated this kind young woman with the great EDF heroine, "Mark….the only part of your mother which is here in the ground is her body. That's only because she became too sick to be with us anymore. God sent His Angels to escort her soul home to a place we call Heaven."_

_"Can I go there to see her?" said Mark._

_"Probably not in this life, darling…" said Nova. Then, in the dream, unaware of the full import of what she said, she said, "Your mother, you could say, is still quite alive and well, even though you can't be with her….and she is taking every chance she can…the best way she can…to look after you…never forget that…."_

_"Really?" said Mark._

_Nova nodded. "Mark, your mother still lives…"_

_"Your mother still lives…"_

_"Your mother still lives…"_

_"Your mother still lives…"_

_"she…still lives…."_

* * *

Mark woke up with those words ringing in his mind…and….

….he woke up to a knocking at the door. "Open up!" snapped an angry voice from outside.

An angry male voice.

"Mark are you all right in there?" snapped the voice.

"Derek, he's probably just asleep," said a female voice, soft but authoritative.

Mark sat bolt upright and shook Princess awake. "Princess! PRINCESS!" he snapped.

She sat up, gasping. "Mark…I…"

Then, the knocking came at the door. Mark pulled on his pants, sans underwear, and tossed Princess' jeans at her. Military discipline kicked in, and, except for his shoes, he was dressed by the time he opened the hatch, just as Princess was pulling on her T-shirt.

Mark looked, and he saluted as Admiral Derek Wildstar stood there, grim and tough-looking in his Star Force whites (albeit with a touch of very messy hair), with Nova at his side, holding his hand, as she stood there wearing an ISO green scrub dress, white sandals, and a long lab coat.

"It's a pleasure seeing both of you," said Mark.

"Likewise," said Derek as he returned the salute. "Nova, you've performed the first of the tests?"

Nova nodded. "Yes. On a sample from myself, and from his birth mother. Luckily, that _Goddamned_ Anderson kept tissue samples. I didn't relish the thought of having to…drag this out by getting a court order to exhume Lina Washio."

"Me neither," said Derek.

"Sir…drag…what out?" said Mark.

"Come with us. Bring Princess. Correction. Let her buckle her shoes on, first. Sorry to disturb you two," said Derek.

"What?" said Princess.

Nova giggled slightly. "You two are terrible at hiding things. Okay, so are _we,_" Nova said with a deep blush that Mark noticed went down to her bare toes. "Let's not beat around the bush, you two. You two were being romantic in the past two hours and we dragged you out of bed. That's okay. So were the Admiral and I. Sometimes, you just really _have_ to do that when you're a couple. Totally natural."

"Sir, what about…insubordination charges, fraternization?" said Mark.

"I regularly fraternize with a Captain," Derek said as he affectionately mussed up Nova's hair. "How do you think we got five kids?"

"Six," Nova corrected him.

"Six?" said Princess. "Mrs. Wildstar, are you expecting? Congratulations, ma'am…"

"No…we…just located.." stammered Derek. "Come with us. All will be explained it a few minutes. You will have to give Nova a sample in Sickbay…."

"Don't worry…I just took one from myself," said Nova.

* * *

In one of Center Neptune's Sickbays, a few minutes later, Mark gasped a little as Nova clicked a complex device she had applied to a spot on his arm after she gave him a local anesthetic. Mark and Princess saw she was working with her lab coat off, and that her scrub dress was sleeveless and had a deep scoop neck. The bandage on her own bare upper arm was quite visible as she worked, and the hints of the contours of the slender body beneath made Mark guess (although he was too polite to say it) that Nova was probably naked beneath her scrub dress.

"I saw you had a robot," said Nova as she worked at putting a bandage on Mark, the soles of her feet quite visible in her backless white sandals as she crouched on the balls of her feet with her legs together. "Does he lift up ladies' dresses?"

" Zark?" said Princess as she sat curled up in a ball in her civvies and sandals. "No…he's way too prim and proper for that sort of thing."

"Good. I know a robot back home who….never mind," Nova said as Derek's hand rested tenderly on her bare shoulder. He kissed her shoulder and helped her up. "Now, let's process this sample. We are doing a match for the Mitochondrial DNA structure,first. I also took a sample from Derek before, for reasons that will become apparent during this test."

Mark and Princess raised their eyebrows at each other as Nova placed the sample into a machine. She let a centrifuge run, and said, "You two have a lot to absorb tonight. Derek wanted you alone for this, but I insisted since you were a couple and were probably becoming quite….close, shall we say? I insisted that you two had to be together for this."

"She's right. It's better this way," said Derek as he looked strangely at Mark. Mark wondered why Derek Wildstar looked like he was about to cry. Nova came over to him, kissed him, and said, "Darling…please don't cry. We know it is not your fault at all…"

"Yeah, if they had told me…" he said through a thick voice. "If they had told me, screw regs, screw secrecy, Nova, I would've told you and then we would have raided Singleton's office like avenging angels to get him back!"

Nova looked at a computer readout a moment later. "Muscle sample reduced to its constituent parts…reading the DNA structure now…."

Nova then nodded, and typed some commands into a computer keyboard. "Mark, this structure indicates your Mitochondrial DNA. This is important because it comes from your mother, and is a marker that indicates whom your mother of conception is."

"Mother of conception?" said Mark, mystified.

Derek nodded. "Your mother Tina Washio was a surrogate mother. You were implanted in her womb after your mother of conception had borne you for about two or three weeks. This was kept secret by ISO and by the Earth Defense Command, damn them!"

"The results," Nova said in a husky voice filled with tears. She let Mark's structure run across the screen, followed by Tina Washio's. "The analysis shows that you are not a match genetically with the woman you thought was your mother. Instead, you are a perfect genetic match with this woman."

Nova let another sample run across the screen. The name was blurred out on the screen, and, a moment later, another sample pattern began to run over the woman's pattern. They came together, merged, and then the computer did a readout. Nova held back tears as she said. "This proves this woman was and is your mother of conception; and this pattern above is that of your father. Your father is not, and never was, Ken Washio. Tina Washio bore you, pushing you out of her loins in birth into the world, but hers were not the loins that should have birthed you, and her belly was not the belly in which you began to exist, and Ken Washio was not the father who made love to his wife and gave you life on a beautiful night on a Hawaiian beach on leave…oh, we can take you there, Mark, show you were you were conceived…"

"How would you two know these things?" Mark said, shocked, angered, and stunned. "How do you know all this about me?"

Derek then put an arm around Mark. "Listen, Mark. There's a….a damn good reason we know this…"

"How?"

"Cronus found out the truth, and he made sure than the files came from Riga to us," Derek said as he pointed at the files.

"Then who the hell is my real father?" cried Mark. "And my real mother?"

Derek then broke down in tears and hugged Mark close in a manly embrace. "Your real father's holding you….that's how we know. They screwed us, like they screwed and betrayed you!"

"Then…then…who the hell is my mo…?"

"I am, silly," sobbed Nova as she came in close and held Derek and Mark. She cried hard as she said, "Mark, you poor thing, _we are your real parents!_ We made love. We conceived you…but you were a Tubal Pregnancy. I thought you were a Fallopian Cyst. I went to the hospital, and instead of their doing the usual probe and operation to implant you properly in my womb so you could grow in my belly….they took you from me and placed you in Tina Washio's belly….because they wanted you as an experimental guinea pig, and they didn't want me to be pregnant then! Generals Singleton, Stone, Doctor Sane, and Anderson all played GOD and took you from your mother's body and placed you in a stranger's body! All knowing that you would be set up to be abandoned later on, and knowing that your mother was ailing and would probably die in five years!"

"Where the hell is the justice in that?" sobbed Derek as he held his son.

"I want to KILL Anderson right now!" yelled Mark.

"I know you do, shall I get him in here?" said Princess.

Nova unblurred the names on the computer screen as she stepped away. "Genetics does not lie," she said. She handed Mark two pictures; one of Cronus or Ken Washio, and one of Derek at that age. "Who do you look more like?" Nova said as she sniffed loudly.

"It's obvious he's your dad," said Princess as she held back a sob. "Look at you two…the fire you two get in your eyes when you are pissed off is the same, Mark!"

Mark smiled a little at that. So did Derek. Then, he looked at Nova and stammered, "Mo…Mother?"

"Mom is just fine," Nova said as she held him again.

"Do you have on you….is there a scar from the operation…?" he asked as he held his mother.

Nova let go of him and said, "Yes….there is. It's not that noticeable….oh, heck…" she said, blushing as she kicked off her sandals.

"Nova?" said Derek.

"It's all right; they may see me like this on the beach or around our pool anyway," Nova said as she abruptly pulled up her scrub dress, and then pulled it off, stripping herself completely naked before Mark and Princess' stunned eyes. They could see that Nova was very pretty for her age, and looked startlingly young with her uniform and glasses taken off.

She sat on the examining table and said, "Derek, you've seen this already…Mark…take a quick look at me…it's...here," she said.

"I…Mom…do I have to see this?" Mark said with a blush, embarrassed, yet fascinated as Nova pointed to the spot at her naked bikini area. He saw the light scar in her skin and realized that this was, like stigmata, a literal sign of his premature parting of the ways from his mother.

Nova blushed but said, "I'm not embarrassed…I would have had to strip naked to give birth to you, anyway….I get very hot in labor….if it had gone the way it was supposed to; I gave birth to all of my children in the nude," she said, crying softly again. "I…I nursed all of my children at my breasts…often stripped naked like this so they could feel my warmth…my heartbeat…it's okay…it's…like a symbolic rebirth for you….Mark…."

Then, even as she cried, Nova hugged Mark hard, literally taking him in her arms and to her breast for a moment. He hugged back, weeping as he basked in his mother's arms…feeling the love of a parent he thought taken from him, feeling Nova's warmth…and hearing the soft but strong pounding of her heart for a moment.

Then, Mark thought she heard her voice in his mind, whispering, _I love you, Mark…_

_How can you do that?_ Mark thought.

Nova held him and thought, _I can do that because I have some Iscandarian blood in me which is thousands of years old; along with some Pellian blood. I am distantly related to Queen Astrena of Pellias and to Queen Starsha of Iscandar; which is why I look a bit like them, and now, you know, so are you…._

Derek held him from behind, hugging him, hugging Nova….and all three of them wept as Princess also cried. Finally, after a bit, Derek said. "Let's step back….let's let your mother put her clothes back on…."

"Yes…Dad…" said Mark as he gritted his teeth and cried anew as Princess gently brought Nova's clothing and shoes over and helped her get dressed. Both women then held each other and cried as Derek held Mark. Then, he collected himself and said, "The reason I'm invoking Directive 66 is that I'm ordering you and Princess to take a seven-day sabbatical from G-Force to come home with us."

"And?" said Mark.

"To meet your family…to allow us to have your EDF commissioning papers reissued in your true name…so that we can add you to our wills…that sort of thing," Derek said gently. "Nova and I agreed to that flying here from Brazil."

"Anderson and the others caused you to be taken from my body like a sort of rape," Nova said with a deep fire in her eyes. "You were taken from me and from your true father. The least they can give us together is a week. And…you need some time to be with Princess here…date her a bit…take her out for sodas, milk shakes…that sort of thing. Are you two engaged?"

Mark and Princess looked at each other and blushed. Princess finally said, "No, Doctor Wildstar…we're…."

"Maybe you should consider yourselves engaged as of this moment," Nova said, hugging both of them again. "I mean…so…you can room together at our house? Correction, Mark….your house?"

The casual throwing of the words _your house_ made Mark shiver a bit. "I really have a home…siblings?"

"Anya_ will_ drive you up the wall," said Derek with a slight smile. "You remember her from that night at the hotel?"

Mark nodded while Princess said, "Don't worry, Mark….I'll protect you from Anya."

"I will," said Nova as she kicked her sandals back on. Then, she looked at Derek and said, "We need to confront him, Derek. NOW."

"Anderson?" said Derek. "Yes, we sure need to confront him….and right now. Nova, Mark, Princess, come with me." He picked up the files and said, "Nova, please make a printout of the genetic results. We're taking them in to Anderson. Then, after we see him, we are seeing the rest of G-Force."

"The rest of the team?" said Mark.

Nova and Derek looked at each other, and nodded. "Damn right," said Derek with a snarl on his face. "Those other three…they're like your siblings, right?"

"They are," said Princess.

"Well, they need to know who Mark really is," said Nova. "No more secrets. No more hiding. No more lies. And, they need to know that you two are a couple. Derek, when we came in here, I…I heard a comment from that Jason."

"And?" said Derek.

"I needed to restrain myself from slapping that kid in the face," Nova hissed. "Something about 'Mark's getting some, guys…' Damn punk!" Nova said angrily. "No one hurts our child like that, Derek…"

"Damn right," said Derek as he made fists and ground his teeth. "NO ONE does that to _my_ kid."

Mark smiled a little at this. Not only did he have a new dad…he had one_ heck _of a protective new dad.

* * *

**II. CONFRONTATION **

**ISO Center Neptune**

**Off the Coast of Peru…**

**April 24, 2222**

**2256 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

Doctor James Byron Anderson looked over the report that had just been e-mailed to him. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the letter, and thought, _Now, even from the grave, Colonel Cronus has issued a strike against me…against G-Force…against the mission._

_By doing what?_

_By having those records stolen._

_This is worse than the Conway Tapes._

_This is worse than giving away the codes right to Zoltar himself._

_This is….a nightmare….security breach beyond all comprehension…._

Anderson opened his desk drawer and looked at the Walther P.38 that came out. _Do I need this?_ Anderson thought. _Maybe I do. Maybe I need it for…them….maybe…I need it for…myself?_

Anderson put his weapon in his desk drawer, at the very top, just as the door to his office opened.

Admiral Derek Wildstar came in, his mouth set in a snarl as he held hands with his wife.

Nova Wildstar's eyes met Anderson's, and, for the first time, he saw that she was giving him the same steely look she had given some of Earth's enemies in the past. Anderson looked at that, seeing in their faces the look of the warriors who confronted Desslok of Gamilon, Zordar and Invidia of the Comet Empire, Lord Ekogaru the Great, Lord Zaden of Rikasha, Zoltar, and countless Bolar Federation officers.

Mark and Princess came up behind them, holding hands, and staring hard at Anderson.

Mark spoke first as he said, "Chief Anderson…you have completely lied to me. My life for the past eighteen years…has been a complete and total God-damned LIE!"

"I…" said Anderson.

Derek spoke next. "We have met our eldest son this evening. This young man is our child. Our son! Why the hell did you take him from us…?"

"I…I didn't…" said Anderson.

Nova slammed the files on his desk. "These files discuss everything that happened. A few hours ago, I felt like leaving my husband for this until we both saw you lied to him, too. WHY?" Nova snapped. "Why did you have our child taken from my body and implant him in the body of a stranger; something I would never have consented to, even if he was really at risk!"

"Doctor Wildstar, there were all sorts of factors…" Anderson said.

"I read your so-called justifications;" said Derek. "And they are full of shit. Like _you_!"

"Listen, Admiral, you are not coming here and confronting me in that tone of…"

Nova looked at Derek, received a quick nod, and, as fast as lightning, she raised her hand, and Anderson began to feel a strong force at his neck.

It was coming from Nova, and he realized that, like a Jedi Knight from a fictional movie, she was actually strangling him _with her mind_.

He gasped as Nova came up to him with fire in her eyes and a hard look on her face.

"Damn you, Doctor!" snapped Anderson. "You'll be up on charges for violating my person like that!"

"Like you should be, for violating MY person with your doctors' scalpels and cutting my child from my body?" Nova hissed in his face as she grabbed Anderson's jacket by its lapels and shook him hard after she broke her stranglehold on him.

"Admiral, are you going to let her do this?" roared Anderson.

"Be lucky I'm not up on that desk beside my wife," said Derek through gritted teeth. "Or, count yourself lucky that I am not letting my son get up on that desk next."

"So what are we doing about this?" said Anderson as he grabbed Nova's wrists. "Damnit, get your hands off my coat!" he yelled.

"Get your damn hands off my wife, Anderson!" snapped Derek. "Right now, she has every right to put you through that bulkhead if she wants to! And I'll stand behind her one hundred percent. Especially if this goes up before the World Press, Parliament, or the Federation Council."

"Thank you, Derek," Nova said softly.

Then, Derek spoke. "I'm invoking part of Directive 66, Anderson. Mark is going on leave for seven days. So is Princess."

"Is this…a unilateral…action?"

"It is, Anderson." Derek paused. "Doctor Wildstar, please let go of Doctor Anderson."

Nova glared at Anderson, shook him, let go, and got down off the desk. She saluted Derek, who returned the salute. She did not salute Anderson.

Then, Admiral Wildstar said, "I've come to a decision about the war with Spectra. Yes. It is a war. This is no longer terrorist attacks, with your five trained Whiz Kids against a mecha or two. The Van Allen Belt project hit us up side of the head. I wanted to take the _Argo_ right to Spectra then and take the war right to Zoltar's capital. Singleton talked me out of it. This time, I've done some thinking, and I've set some wheels in motion. Nova, the data cartridge, please."

"Right," she said, taking out a small message capsule. She handed the object, only about the size of a 21st Century Thumb Drive, to Derek. He then plugged it into a portable player on Anderson's desk and turned it on.

The sound of a Jet Recon's boats engines could be heard in the background, along with the beeps and boops of a comm signal going through Earth's Defense and Comm Systems in code. A computer voice then said, "_Link established; Gamilon Imperial High Command; Private Imperial Frequency 5431.2_."

Anderson's eyes went wide. "You…you didn't…?"

"Shut up," Derek snapped. A moment later, the sound of a Gamilon ventilating system could be heard over the speakers as a mellow voice said, "Yes? Who dares disturb my repose at this hour?"

"That's…" whispered Princess.

"Yes," Nova said. "That's Leader Desslok."

"Desslok, this is Admiral Wildstar," Derek's voice said over the comm system.

"Is anyone else there with you?" Desslok said.

"Just me," Nova said quietly. "We're in a plane. This is scrambled and enciphered."

"What do you two need?" said Desslok.

"We need to call in a serious favor, Desslok. We need you to begin a general mobilization," Derek said.

Anderson's eyes went wide as Mark thought, _My God….my father has a HELL of a lot of pull. More than…..Cronus ever did….he can just call HIM up and talk with him?_

"My friend, why do we need to do this?" said Desslok.

"Spectra. Zoltar's gone beyond his little games and sneak attacks. A few weeks ago, he tried to destroy Earth and Riga by crude but effective means. The sacrifice of a very brave man who should always be remembered as one of our greatest heroes stopped him. But, it could be any one of us, Desslok. If he were to try that against Gamilon….against Iscandar…" Derek said.

"Zoltar's forces had begun to strike at my outermost bases. For the first time in many years," said Desslok. "I'm very glad, actually, to hear from you and Nova about this. Do you want a mobilization against Spectra?"

"Yes," Nova said. "Please."

"And what are you doing?" said Desslok.

"I'm calling up the Star Force," said Derek. "I've had enough of this screwing around with our little Ninja Force. The _Argo_ will be in space in the next two weeks. We are going to take the war right to Spectra. Can we count on you for support?"

"You can," said Desslok. "I'll begin a mobilization and I will pull our Ambassador off Spectra within the next day. I'm cutting relations between our Empires….although I don't know if you can call his little ragtag band an Empire or not," Desslok said with a sinister laugh. "I will be talking with your Commanding General in case you need justification for mobilizing the Star Force."

"Good," said Derek. "G-Force will also be a part of our operation. I want Zoltar dead. They also took my son. I want him back, if he is still alive."

"And?" said Desslok.

"I'm going to be watching over G-Force. When we go into Spectra…G-Force will be under my command. Not the Federation's Not ISO's. MINE," snapped Derek. "And this time, they get to take the gloves off."

"You appear to have a very proprietary interest in that team, my friend. May I ask why?" said Desslok.

"My son commands them," said Derek. "Nova and I just found out. Long story. The boy is going to Spectra to get his adopted brother out before we hit them with the hammer blows they deserve. Military targets only. Damage to civilian populations to be held to the barest minimum."

"I see," said Desslok.

The transmission ended.

Derek then said, "Nova and I are leaving NOW. With my son. And his fiancée', Princess!"

"Fiancée?" Anderson said. "As of when?" said Anderson.

"As _of now_!" said Princess as she came in, in her civvies, with a grim look on her face.

"Very well," sighed Anderson, as another idea came to him. "Go…now. We will discuss this later, Mark."

"There is nothing further to discuss," said Mark as he left.

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


End file.
